A Proper Government

I've been hearing about the clown show in Washington D. C. since forever and I'm thinking maybe we need a different arrangement. Instead of having Congress decide everything, maybe we should hire a manager to actually run the country, the way some city councils hire a manager to run their city. That way the clowns in Congress could concentrate on what's important to them (which is performing on stage for the public) and the manager could worry about actually running the country. The important part is that Congress would no longer have the power to levy taxes, award contracts or borrow money.

Okay, that's a fantasy. It's not going to happen, but I suspect the way things work is actually very similar. On one hand we have the clown show where the clowns get up and spout off on all the subjects that are guaranteed to generate an emotional response. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the bureaucrats try and make sure that the country has enough food, fuel and housing. Mostly they just try to see that everyone plays by the rules.

Congress is the problem. It used to be that there were two houses whose members were chosen in very different ways. The lower house, Congress, has always been chosen by the people. The upper house, the Senate, used be chosen by the people in charge of the state. But sometime in the early 20th Century we passed an amendment that Senators would be chosen by the people, and it's been downhill ever since.

We need to repeal the 17th amendment. Or maybe not.