Long-time former Nevada Senator Harry Reid passes away

[bsjkki]

2 hours ago, The Nehor said:

It is a job but you usually don’t make much. It can be worth it for the experience of government or if you want to go into government it helps you meet people.

Yeah. Both parties have call centers across the street from Congress. Looks like they are shooting for around 30 hours a week now.

https://issueone.org/articles/the-congressional-fundraising-treadmill-5-key-numbers-to-know-from-the-newest-house-and-senate-campaign-finance-filings/

Even people in safe seats are heavily encouraged to fundraise to move money to key races. Many hate it because their job is to legislate, review legislation in committees, and conduct oversight and all the rest. They already have to spend a fair amount of time campaigning and doing town halls which takes away from that. Some like it and it is possible using PACs to basically fund a rich lifestyle if you get enough.

It is easy to see why a lot of the competent people who actually want to do their job get frustrated and leave. Those who want to do the job and keep coming back are presumably masochists.

Plus, members have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to get committee assignments. It’s a corrupt mess. Being a  House member is dreary. Constant campaigning and fundraising with little influence unless in leadership. That’s why they often retire if people think the majority will swing.

[Calm]

https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/president-ballard-honors-harry-reid

[The Nehor]

On 1/8/2022 at 8:23 PM, bsjkki said:

Plus, members have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to get committee assignments. It’s a corrupt mess. Being a  House member is dreary. Constant campaigning and fundraising with little influence unless in leadership. That’s why they often retire if people think the majority will swing.

In addition unless you already had power in the party or a national stage or something along those lines if you are a freshman you generally get the less critical committees. This can make it hard to win reelection since you can’t do as much. Those who learn the system and know how to wheel and deal and secure power thrive but they are usually not those we would call virtuous. Basically you have to hold on to your seat to get some seniority and try to placate your constituents. Meanwhile you get to spend half your day in a call center and the schedules of committee meetings mean you often cannot attend them all and time spent on the floor is often time wasted unless there is a vote. Post-Nixon the main reason for floor speeches is trying to get a sound bite on the news or to blow up on social media or whatever. It is a cynical environment. I used to watch C-Spam back when I was really into politics. Many of the people in Congress are just plain stupid and every time one of them pulled out their pocket constitution to read something irrelevant to try to get their statement to go big I wanted to punch them in the face.

I almost think Congress being televised after Watergate was a mistake. Maybe the other way of keeping out viewers to allow more unfettered debate would have been worse. Keeping the congressional seniority system and virtually all power in the committee chairs could also easily have been much worse.

[Stargazer]

On 1/11/2022 at 11:40 PM, The Nehor said:

In addition unless you already had power in the party or a national stage or something along those lines if you are a freshman you generally get the less critical committees. This can make it hard to win reelection since you can’t do as much. Those who learn the system and know how to wheel and deal and secure power thrive but they are usually not those we would call virtuous. Basically you have to hold on to your seat to get some seniority and try to placate your constituents. Meanwhile you get to spend half your day in a call center and the schedules of committee meetings mean you often cannot attend them all and time spent on the floor is often time wasted unless there is a vote. Post-Nixon the main reason for floor speeches is trying to get a sound bite on the news or to blow up on social media or whatever. It is a cynical environment. I used to watch C-Spam back when I was really into politics. Many of the people in Congress are just plain stupid and every time one of them pulled out their pocket constitution to read something irrelevant to try to get their statement to go big I wanted to punch them in the face.

I almost think Congress being televised after Watergate was a mistake. Maybe the other way of keeping out viewers to allow more unfettered debate would have been worse. Keeping the congressional seniority system and virtually all power in the committee chairs could also easily have been much worse.

It seems that the main qualification for public office is the ability to get elected. Beyond that...

I enjoy watching episodes of the British comedy series "Yes, Minister" and its sequel "Yes, Prime Minister." Besides getting an unintended insight into British politics (and politics in general), it's funny. I don't usually watch full episodes, but YouTube has single scenes that are funny. I suspect a US series based on Congress would be funny, too. Or, alternatively, it would induce despair.

[The Nehor]

2 hours ago, Stargazer said:

It seems that the main qualification for public office is the ability to get elected. Beyond that...

I enjoy watching episodes of the British comedy series "Yes, Minister" and its sequel "Yes, Prime Minister." Besides getting an unintended insight into British politics (and politics in general), it's funny. I don't usually watch full episodes, but YouTube has single scenes that are funny. I suspect a US series based on Congress would be funny, too. Or, alternatively, it would induce despair.

I had an idea for an “Odd Couple” style comedy where 2 or 3 freshmen members of the House from both parties (independent for the 3rd maybe) end up renting a townhome together to save money.

It wouldn’t work now. Same reason you couldn’t do a show like “West Wing” right now.

Then again the pilot of “Heil Honey” showed that for sitcoms virtually anything can fit into that format. It just might be tasteless.