Shades of Greene
Even Scalia said that there could be restrictions, so how is that someone as certifiable as Marjorie Taylor-Greene got that gun permit? Anywhere? Even Milledgeville, Capital of Georgia, 1804 to 1868? Too bad that the founders didn’t see fit to keep someone so unfit out of Congress. “No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.” Never mind the he, surely and who shall not, when elected, be of good mind must be at least as important as be an Inhabitant?
What are we to make of the newly elected Congresswoman who is a believer in QAnon, a disproven and discredited far-right conspiracy theory alleging that a secret cabal of Satan-worshiping, cannibalistic pedophiles is running a global … , and posts a video of herself harassing David Hogg, a Parkland Shooting survivor? What are we to make of the people who sent her to Congress?
We’ve no evidence that Walt Kelly ever went to Georgia, but he did work for Walt Disney and did draw comics about swamps. However it came to be, Walt Kelly was one prescient son of a gun. Indirectly, we owe him for Doonesbury, Bloom County and Opus, and Sherman’s Lagoon. But his biggest gift of all was his Pogo’s “WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND HE IS US.”
What is to be done about these states that send the likes of Majorie, Lauren, Lindsey, Marsha, Tommy, Mo, … to represent them in Congress?
Transcript of MJT’s speech on House floor on 2/4/2021
Ol’ Pogo Possum was a swamp critter, so he could probably have splained it to ya. Such small communities do not have many new families moving in and not much of a gene pool to draw from. At least in the mountains there is some natural selection thinning out the weakest members of the herd, but the low country has more than enough fish and shellfish to feed everyone. I love living in the low country myself having grown up in the foothills, but down there in the low country high top boots and a small bore handgun are advisable since there a ton of snakes.
After over 200 years commentators still refer to our government as an experiment in democracy.
In the beginning the framers limited the fringe by requiring that voters have a stake in good governance by being “property-owning or tax-paying white males” (Wikipedia). I can think of any number of ways to try to assure that voters (or at least legislators) have a stake in good governance, but I can also see how my ideas can be subverted.
@Arne,
Unfortunately enough legislators have a stake in getting elected and then reelected again and again. In many parts of the country voters have a stake in nuts, specifically off-the-wallnuts, which I can empathize with without embracing their off-the-wallnuts as my own off-the-wallnuts.
I do not know who said “An ignorant people cannot be free,” but I swear (s)he was really onto something with that.
@Ron,
So are you a proponent of terms limits? Should people have to pass a test before they are allowed to vote? Or at least before they can run for Congress?
@Arne,
Legislative term limits are high on my list, but not so short that every legislator is a rookie. Something like 20 years total combined service in the Federal Congress would fit that purpose. Ending private campaign finance is much higher on my wish list.
I am not a advocate of tests for voters or candidates, but wish a far better standard of learning for the general public than what I have experienced within my lifetime. Not every standard of learning need be a test. Classroom or Zoom time spent on open ungraded participation in discussions of economics, political science, and history accomplishes establishing a baseline for citizenship. Participation means that each student gets a time slot, then more slots for challenges, questions, and rebuttals.
@Arne,
I live in Colorado where we have term limits at the state level of two terms.
8 years is just too short. You lose both experience and institutional knowledge.
@Dave Barnes,
Precisely sir.
Why not just limit the age to 45-65 for instance. Then they are both experienced and term is self limiting. I’m just about to retire, but no more gerontocracy. Laws are made for the future.
Transcript of MJT’s Flor speech on 2/4/2021
https://www.rev.com/blog/transcripts/marjorie-taylor-greene-house-floor-speech-transcript-hearing-to-remove-greene-from-committee-assignments
@Reason,
Excellent idea, Dude. POTUS presently must be 36, which could stay the minimum for all with the maximum at 66. That is more than 20 years but still less than Strom Thurmond.
We should not be surprised that House Republicans have applauded the disgusting antics and beliefs of Rep. Greene when 70% of them VOTED to overthrow a free and fair election claiming widespread fraud, following 61 lawsuits including SCOTUS opinions to the contrary and a failed violent take over of the U.S. Capitol. It’s a different world out there — facts, truth and the “golden rule” are not important to a large percentage of Americans.