Reclaim Congress: Demand an End to Oligarchy Rule!

by Gary Wood
© January 10, 2008

With an ever increasing number of Independent voters it is time to address a key challenge to our Constitution that grips the U.S. Congress. Newly elected Senators and Representatives cannot take their oath and begin to represent their constituents. Those elected by the people are subjugated in status based on a vial, derisive system we have allowed to grow within the halls of Congress. The practice of the Democratic and Republican Parties selecting majority and minority leaders, whips, and support staffs has become a tradition whose control equates to no more than an oligarchy rule over this country’s legislative branch.

An oligarchy is defined as “a form of government in which all power is vested in a few persons or in a dominant class or clique; government by the few.” At what point did you or your neighbor elect any past majority or minority leader? Why is it those appointed to these roles have a louder, more powerful voice than the Senator or Representative the voters just entrusted their voice to? This ‘clique’ has carefully leveled an extreme amount of power over anyone outside of their inner circle. When the Independent voters begin selecting representation beyond the two major parties this ‘clique’ will be there to silence the voices of voters.

From the United States Senate’s website the definition of party floor leaders (emphasis added) is, “The Majority Leader and Minority Leader are elected by their respective party conferences to serve as the chief Senate spokesmen for their parties and to manage and schedule the legislative and executive business of the Senate. By custom, the Presiding Officer gives the floor leaders priority in obtaining recognition to speak on the floor of the Senate.” The following definition for the position of whip is given. “Assistants to the floor leaders who are also elected by their party conferences. The Majority and Minority Whips (and their assistants) are responsible for mobilizing votes within their parties on major issues. In the absence of a party floor leader, the whip often serves as acting floor leader.”

None of these positions were mandated in the Constitution yet began to emerge around the turn of the 19^th and 20^th century. Today they are merely accepted traditional, customary, and extremely powerful positions. Remember, the Senate was to be overseen by the Vice President and the House by a Speaker of the House. We will hear from the Republican and Democrat Parties alike how important it is to have these ‘key’ leadership positions to help the flow of legislation. There will be cries against ending this ‘time-honored tradition’ and we will, no doubt, be warned of the dangers of ending the practice. No matter what arguments these two parties present it is imperative their grip on the U.S. Congress be brought to an end.

Note very clearly who the floor leaders speak for, their parties with priority in speaking. Nevadans may have elected Harry Reid but it is his job to speak for his party. Kentucky counted on being represented by Mitch McConnell but he is busy speaking not for Kentucky but for the Republican Party. At the same time these ‘leaders’ are given priority there are many Senators and Representatives who must struggle for a voice while facing the wrath of their perspective parties if they dare speak out against the stance embraced by that party. Where, in this scenario, is the voice of the people?

This may well be the fruition of the warnings voiced over 200 years ago regarding the dangerous, tyrannical nature of party politics. In his 1796 Farewell Address George Washington sounded a loud and clear warning;

“All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests.

However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

The leadership of the two major parties in the United States successfully usurped the reins of government, just as Washington warned. This subversion of the power of the people is no more clearly evident than within the structure of the U.S. Congress accepted by the people, until now. Any organized political party, including the Republican and Democrat Party, must not be allowed to control the legislative branch and must be allowed only to influence the campaigns leading up to, not beyond, the swearing in of those we the people elect.

The power is shifted back and forth between only two parties, Republicans and Democrats. In the current structure there is no way any person elected from outside the two majority party powerhouses in the United States could ever hope to land one of these power positions. It would be easier to get elected as a third party Presidential candidate rather than win a seat at the inner circle of Congressional power. Anytime there is a shift in the control of Congress the parties merely switch majority and minority hats.

We the people are currently being bombarded with the word ‘change’ during the current campaign. This word will become a part of each of the 469 Congressional races soon to be under way. By January 2009 those elected as our Senators and Representatives must be allowed to stand on equal ground so the people of Rhode Island are equally represented as the people of California and all 50 States.

Third party candidates or true Independent candidates will attempt to gain a voice yet even if elected their voice and the voice of those voting for them will be silenced and no real change effected unless we demand an end to the power structure within the halls of Congress. The oligarchy rule, the usurped power controlling the reigns of our legislative branch must be severed. We must demand a return to the Constitutional structure within both chambers and the change must be swift and immediate.