I'm not sure that the House of Representatives ever functioned really well, but with John Boehner at the helm, it has been a disaster. A number of different problems with the way the federal government works that all seem to go back to the way that the House of Representatives is constituted. Let me list them (Admittedly, this list is not complete, and there is some overlap between the listed items.) and then suggest a constitutional fix that could help to solve them all.
Please continue reading below.
Some of the problems that I see are these:
· Gerrymandering. Enough said.
· Uncompetitive districts. In geographical areas where one political party is dominant, the other party might not even field a candidate. This practice effectively disenfranchises voters who do not share the view of the dominant party in their district and leaves those voters with no one who truly represents them in Congress. They are left with the choice of voting against their preferences or not voting, which is not much of a choice.
· In the Democratic Party, insipidness and mediocrity are the watchwords for many candidates. In the Republican Party, the lunatics have largely taken control of the asylum.
· Often, the representative that best reflects the view of a voter actually represents a different congressional district. For example, Alan Grayson represents my views much better than my current representative (who is a Democrat), but I do not live in Florida.
· Many people probably do not find anyone in Congress whose views they agree with, and they are effectively unrepresented in Congress.
· Widespread voter apathy. See the previous points.
· The political party and political views that control the House of Representatives are not those that the majority of voters voted for.
For the last two years, I have been living in Europe, and in the country where I am, at least, people are much more engaged in politics. Although there are several reasons for the difference in level of engagement, one important factor seems to be that in many European countries, legislators who serve in what more or less corresponds to our House of Representatives do not represent a particular geographic region. Instead, they are selected through a proportional system based on the support received by different political parties in a nation-wide election.
That system has several important advantages:
· There is a wider range of political parties, and people have more choices to represent them. Their chances of being able to vote for a political platform that they agree with strongly are vastly increased. After the elections, even if their preferred party did not prevail, their views are likely to be fairly faithfully represented by someone in the legislature, and they will have a voice rather than simply being excluded.
· Elections are truly national, and the action is not confined to swing states and swing districts. Everyone in the country has an equal voice and plays an equal role in deciding the outcome.
· A wider range of ideas is discussed. There is less timidness and orthodoxy among politicians, whose role is to advocate for a specific limited constituency instead of an insipid muddle of “mainstream” views.
· Crazies are represented, but their influence is not disproportionately greater than their support among voters.
· It is harder for money to control the political parties when there are more parties and it is fairly easy for citizens to create new parties if the old parties are bought. One effect of this possibility in Europe seems to be that the parties are a bit less deferential to money, since they realize that they could be replaced by new parties if they are too obviously in the service of the rich.
· Although it is possible in this sort of system for a single minority party to control the legislature, it is much more difficult than in the U.S. at present.
· The problem of gerrymandering is eliminated, since Representatives do not represent geographically defined districts.
I don’t have a fully worked-out final proposal for how the U.S. Constitution should be amended, but it should include election of members of the House of Representatives by parties, with each party receiving a proportion corresponding to the percentage of votes received at a national level, and it should be relatively easy to set up a new political party. Instead of elections every two years invariantly, it might be necessary to allow more frequent elections if there is a successful vote of no confidence in the speaker, and it might be possible to go three years without an election if things are going smoothly. (Here we should look at what has worked best in other countries.)
While we're at it, the Constitution should also be changed to make government more democratic by including the following elements:
1. Popular election of the President and Vice President. No Electoral College.
2. The powers of the Senate should be limited, so that the will of the majority of the population cannot be easily thwarted by senators who represent a few low-population states. For example, maybe it could take 60% of the senators to block a law passed by the House. The Senate could perhaps retain its power to approve presidential appointments and other powers. (I'm not sure that it is really necessary to have a senate at all, but probably eliminating it is too drastic for many people to accept. I guess it is nice for the states to have a voice in how the federal government runs.)
3. U.S. citizens who are residents of the District of Columbia and U.S. territories should be able to vote for President and Vice President and members of the House of Representatives and should have some representation in the Senate (but fewer than two senators per territory for each of the five populated territories).
4. Supreme Court justices should be appointed for a single limited fixed term, maybe 15 years, and not for life. Federal judges at lower levels should also be limited, maybe to 25 years.
But my big point is this: Let's get a House of Representatives where the members represent people and not districts. It will lead to a better federal government.
Okay, these amendments will never happen, but they are fun to think about.
Comments invited.