Sortition: The Cure For Congress

Post Reply New Topic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition

I think this would be a great way to eliminate corruption and partisan ass-hattery in the House of Representatives.

Instead of being elected, Representatives would be selected by lottery for a term of three years. To qualify one would need to be a resident of the specific congressional district, a registered voter, 25 or older, and a legal citizen of the US for at least 7 years. Representatives would recieve a salary of $100,000.00/year, plus $100,000.00 severance pay at the end of the term in office. Representatives would also get a staff, paid for by the state they represent, and no one would be allowed to serve for more than a single (3 year) term.

In addition to this, I think we should also go back to having Senators appointed by state assemblies and restricted to serving no more than 2 six year terms at a salary of $100,000.00/year, $100,000.00 severance pay, and state paid-for staff.

Also, I think we should enact laws to severely punish corruption and ethics violations--this sort of behavior should be treated like what it is, treason.

I think these reforms would make for a huge improvement in the quality of Congressmen and enhance the performance of the federal government in general.

lol I'm sure the hobo caucus would be interesting but that's pretty silly obviously.

Now repealing the 17th amendment is more interesting since it would return the Senate to its original purpose which was to represent the states.

An interesting idea is increasing the House from 435 representatives to around 6300 reps since congressional districts where never suppose to exceed more than about 50,000 people. The House was suppose to represent the people and the Senate was suppose to represent the states, now they represent whoever can fund their campaigns.

So, you REALLY think an average voter would be worse than the assclowns in the House now? Talk about obviously silly.

And,in case you didn't notice, that bit in bold is exactly why we need to eliminate elections.



PS

If you do a bit of googling you'll see the idea has a lot of support among libertarian types... WP's right-wangers need to get with the program.

Last edited by GoonSquad on 09 Feb 2014, 2:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Some people seem to forget that the 17th amendment (direct election of senators by popular vote) has a very real benefit: No possibility of gerrymandering.

Due to the existence of gerrymandering, one should not automatically assume that state legislatures (who appointed senators prior to the 17th Amendment) are actually representative of state interests. A senator must answer to the entire voting population of his or her state.

^^^^ That's a good point about gerrymandering, but which is worse, gerrymandering or the influence of Super PACs and other special interests on statewide elections? And what about radical opponents in pre-election political primaries?

I think going back to appointments for senators avoids more evil... Also, we could do with a bit of California style redistricting reform.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California ... Commission

You mean gerrymandering of state legislative districts, not Congressional districts, right?

Questions:

1.) If a person is selected by the lottery, but that person declines to serve, would that person be coerced into serving? If not, then would the lottery be run again to determine a new member?

2.) What sorts of qualifications would be in place for members? Would things like history of mental illness be used to disqualify persons from membership?

^^^ Nobody would be coerced into serving. If you get picked but decline, we would just pick another person.

As far as suitability goes, we would have to have a way to remove incompetent or corrupt representatives. We could have impeachment proceedings in the state legislature.

Otherwise, like I stated in the OP, the basic qualifications would be 25+ years of age, registered voter, citizenship. What else do we need to serve in the people's house?