One look at the make-up of the current Congress reveals why nothing gets done. There was a time when real leadership graced the halls of the people's law-making branch of government. Today, some of the dialogue and exchanges resemble the worst of reality TV, i.e. those Housewives shows. I wonder if those folks know the impact that can have on young people. Imagine trying to role-play Congress in a US Government.
For years, the Social Science department at the school where I taught incorporated a "mock Congress" as part of the curriculum for all government classes. In this activity, students would take the role of prominent politicians in all political party and role play the House and Senate going through the steps of trying to get a bill they wrote through the process of law-making. What better way to learn how the Congress works. Writing a bill is challenging enough, but trying to get it through Congress with all its committees and debate processes is quite a challenge. Sometimes the students would get so involved with their roles as senators and members of congress that they would take on the personality traits of those politicians. Given today's Congress...you see the problem.
We could easily eliminate the likes of a Marjorie Taylor Greene, but then would we be doing a disservice to our students. Perhaps a discussion where students suggest appropriate and inappropriate manners of speech, dress, and comportment would help remedy the problem. I'd add additional areas of inquiry around the qualifications for a member of Congress that go far beyond age and begin to deal with general intelligence.
I could probably name a dozen members of the current Congress that cold not pass a basic US history exam, let alone grasp the meaning and importance of Robert's Rules of Order.
The recent shouting match of "schoolyard" insults shows us this is an issue that won't go away unless it is properly addressed.
Doesn't our current concern about the threats to our Democracy encompass this topic? I'm afraid it does.
Perhaps a Constitutional crisis calls for another Constitutional Convention with the goal of improving on the model that is slowly wearing out.
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