Dear Congress,
It is pretty much accepted that the
majority of American citizens believe this country has been in
decline in various areas for the last few decades. The exact opinions on what's in decline and what isn't vary, but many people beleive the
biggest is the growing ideological rift that has prevented Congress,
and thus the country from truly functioning well.
Each election, members of both parties
stand before the public and make promises that they can fix it, if
only we will support them and their chosen presidential candidate.
This time, you all promise, this time we will fix it. And so we, the
people, argue amongst our selves and vote. And then we keep our
fingers crossed.
Despite all your promises, all our
hopes that this time will be the time, things haven't gotten better.
Things have gotten worse. And both parties point their fingers at
the other party and say “it's their fault!” And if the president
isn't of your party, you blame him, too. In the 90s, it was so bad
that you argued over stains on an intern's dress. It has only gone
down hill since then – now you can't even agree on a budget for a
bloated federal government that has lots of room for cuts. You allow the administration to cut visible services when we all know darn well there is plenty to cut behind the scenes.
And still you insist on pointing
fingers across the aisle, and you waste time dealing with ineffective
feel good legislation that put excessive numbers of laws on the
books, and further divides you and the country, while taking control
from the states, and ceding more and more control to the executive
branch “for our safety”, even though it's in violation of the
spirit of the US Constitution (and often in direct violation of it.)
A lot of fingers are being pointed as to who, specifically, is to
blame.
But have you ever considered that
maybe, just maybe, the real problem is some of you? I'm not talking
about one party or the other, nor the inability to get anything done,
nor even the inter-party bickering. I'm talking about the fact that
a large percentage of you have been there for too long.
A full quarter of the Senate and over
15% of the House of the 113th Congress have been serving
in Congress for over 20 years. Over thirty of you, those who are
considered among the leadership, have been members of Congress for
over 30 years. Prior to the 20th century, it was rare for
a Congressman to serve for over 30 years. In fact, out of the 102
Congressmen who have served for 36 years or more, 90 of them served
in the latter half of the 20th century.
Quite frankly, you've been doing the
job so long, you've lost the ability to be flexible, and the outside
perspective to accept the energy that new blood can bring to an
organization.
You've lost perspective.
To make matters worse, your parties
have been indoctrinating your junior members to the beliefs of your
senior members, making Congress even more inflexible. And some of you
have even become so arrogant that the opinions of your constituents
mean nothing, especially if they don't agree with you 100%.
You've become disconnected from those
you are supposed to represent. You have forgotten that you are supposed to be citizens first, politicians second. Not the other way around.
While a lot of nasty things have been
said about all of you as individuals, particularly during elections,
I believe that, for the most part, most of you do have good
intentions, even if I do feel they are often grossly misguided and/or
driven by your egos. Which is why I am asking those of you who have
served over 20 years this question:
Do you truly want to fix America?
Then step aside, and let someone else
do it. You've had your chance. Despite your best efforts, you're failing. Every good mechanic, technician, engineer and programmer
knows that you can only throw yourself at a stubborn problem for so
long before you absolutely have to bring in a set of fresh eyes to
fix the problem. They all know that if they don't bring in a fresh
set of eyes, they'll continue to spend hours, days, weeks, months and
even years banging their heads against the wall trying to fix
something they've overlooked all that time. You're doing the same
thing. Bring in a fresh set of eyes. Relinquish control.
Resign. Retire. Right now.
Yes, I'm serious. A large majority of
you need to say “Hey, you know what? We can't fix this, we've been
looking at the problems for so long from the same two perspectives
that it's time for the next generation to have a crack at it.”
That willingness to admit defeat, and step aside will do more to
invigorate Congress and America right now than any amount of
experience, bickering and talk of bipartisanship from what is essentially the same group of people who've been saying it for decades ever will.
You do want to fix America, right?
Then let someone else have a crack at it. And don't just resign –
go a step further and don't work for getting your protege's elected.
Discourage them from running even. When your party asks you who you
recommend to replace you say “Someone who's never held office
before. Someone young. Someone you and I don't know. Let the voters
decide.”
It's time to set aside your egos, time
to admit a fresh set of eyes is needed. Time to recognize that the
hundred or so of you in Congress with over 20 years are a small,
insignificant portion of the 300 million people in America, and that
a lot of other people are just as qualified as you to do the job.
Time to recognize that those you've been grooming as your successors
may also lack the needed change of perspective. Time to recognize
that many of you from both sides of the aisle are carrying past
prejudices from the culture of the 60s and 70s as well.
Again, I ask you, for the good of
America, resign. This goes for you Senator Feinstein, Representative
Pelosi, Senator McCain, Representative Young (both of you), Senator Reid, Senator Hatch and all of the rest of you with more than twenty years of
service. You've all done your time
in Congress, thank you for your service - now it's time to give
someone else a shot.
Even though I've spent some time and
effort writing this plea and choosing my wording carefully, I knew
the entire time I was writing it that it was completely in vain. I
know that not one of you will take this seriously, and be courageous
enough to step down. You're all afraid of the tone it will give your
legacy, that it will somehow stain your service to the country, or
that it will mean nothing. You worry it will change the balance of
power in Congress between your parties. And those are exactly the
reasons you should step down – if you truly care about this
country, those things won't bother you, because they aren't what is
important now.
While I can't guarantee you that your
sudden retirements and resignations it won't change the balance of
power, I can promise you that if you do it right, it won't taint your
reputations and legacies in the eyes of the American public. In
fact, if a large majority of you coordinate your departures under the
same umbrella announcement that you're doing it for the good of the
country, it will cement your legacy as true patriots, show that
you're willing to work for the success of this great country with
great personal sacrifice. It will show America and history that you
can and will put greater good ahead of your own egos.
If you don't have the guts to show you
are humble enough to resign, at least have the guts to post a direct
response to this letter on your Congressional web pages explaining to
your constituents why I am wrong, and why you think you can serve
them better by staying on, than stepping down. Or completely ignore me, and my fellow citizens who share this with you, and show us all how really arrogant you truly are and the contempt you have for us mere citizens.
I've put forth the challenge. Do you
accept it?
Sincerely,
Chris Heismann
Citizen and Veteran
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