A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… I attended AA for several years. Mostly Narcotics Anonymous, but AA as well. After about nine or ten years, I decided that I needed to get involved in service, to give something back. I ended up being the Policy Chair for my area. Sitting in meetings, reading Robert’s Rules of Order back to front and front to back, and…making policy. First thing I did was retype the damn thing, which was mostly hand-written. After awhile I decided that it need fleshing out. MORE rules. MORE clarification of the rules and regulations about how we did shit. It took a few months and I finally realized that what I was doing was ridiculous. Who gives a shit anyway. Policies and procedures, like the US Constitution, begin as simple things. They are NOT living documents, evolving to meet our needs. They are simple guidelines to follow, and don’t need to be fucked with.
That’s the damn problem wth congress now. They are so busy making new rules and regulations when we already have most of the ground rules that we need in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It’s easy. Don’t kill your neighbor unless he is trying to kill you, in which case we can dispense with all the niceties and get it over with. Don’t steal from other people. Don’t fight (or spy) for the other side. Mind your own damn business about what I do in my own home and I will do the same. Vote for the people that DON’T want to be in congress. See. Simple. Would solve 90% of our problems, end the war on drugs, and actually get the shit done that needs doing. Tell you what. If we were to make government service unattractive enough that they wouldn’t want to serve more than a term or two, they would only worry about the really important stuff and get the fuck out.
The solution would be to take away the ability to give themselves pay increases. Pay them an average wage based on other local government employees, such as Police, Firefighters, and Teachers and see what happens. Most people would want to server about as little as they want to serve jury duty. Hell, there’s another solution, government by lottery (limited to people who either own property, or have had a job for at least ten years). If you sit on the government dole making your living through welfare checks, you don’t get to serve OR vote. In my world anyway.