Congress was not founded as a career opportunity, but to serve the American people.
The point of serving in Congress is not to get re-elected but to represent the interests of voters.
Somehow that basic fact, which would have been self-evident to members of the first Congress that convened in 1789 to welcome newly elected President George Washington, has been lost. Like so many other institutions, Congress has become a place where self-interest trumps all. This is an excellent example of what I call social entropy, the creeping corruption that eats away at every human institution from local garden clubs to world empires.
Would any Congressman or Senator truly devoted to the interests of his constituents not immediately, finding himself the object of scandal, offer to resign? They do themselves, the Democratic Party, the people whom they represent, and the country no favor by continuing in office. They make themselves personifications of corrupt dysfunction.