this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2023
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politics

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The public has increasingly soured on Congress — and now, some House lawmakers are starting to agree.

With legislating all but brought to a halt and partisanship at an alarming high, members of Congress in both parties are running for the exits, opting out of another term on Capitol Hill to vie for higher office or, in some cases, leave politics altogether.

It is a trend that skyrocketed in recent months — amid a tumultuous 10-week stretch on Capitol Hill — and one that is likely to continue through the end of this year, highlighting the challenges of navigating a polarized, and oftentimes chaotic, era of Congress.

“Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken,” Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) said in a statement when announcing that she would not run for reelection. “[I]t is hard to get anything done.”

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[–] TallonMetroid@lemmy.world 82 points 11 months ago (1 children)

“Right now, Washington, D.C. is broken,” Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.) said in a statement when announcing that she would not run for reelection. “[I]t is hard to get anything done.”

And whose fault is that?

[–] RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world 86 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)

Newt Gingrich

Steve Bannon

Rupert Murdoch

Lee Atwater

Karl Rove

David Koch

Charles Koch

The organized and funded the Republican Party to disfunction this way.

[–] photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 points 11 months ago (1 children)

And all the rubes who followed them.

[–] ares35@kbin.social 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

.. all the media 'personalities' that pump their agenda and fan the fire of hate.

[–] Mnemnosyne@sh.itjust.works 12 points 11 months ago

You forgot to mention the 'greatest' of them all: Mitch McConnell.

[–] noahm@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago

My goodness, Dennis Hastert doesn't even make the list?

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

What's amazing is that the party of Newt - who actively worked to divide America, explicitly, then cried about how "divisive" Obama was when he showed up. Because he was Black. And they do the same for Biden. Because he was basically tasked with fixing the mess that Republicans made (like Democrats always are).

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 38 points 11 months ago (1 children)

To be replaced by worse people who will break it even more.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 7 points 11 months ago

Who knew that the best choice always being the lesser evil could lead to candidates becoming increasingly evil over time?

[–] CaptainSpaceman@lemmy.world 28 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Thirty House members — 19 Democrats and 11 Republicans — have announced that they will not seek reelection next year, covering a wide range of congressional seniority, post-House plans and reasons for jumping ship. Sixteen are retiring from public office, 11 are running for seats in the Senate, and three are eyeing other government positions.

Seems like a dramaticized headline

[–] Jah348@lemm.ee 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I wonder what the change in rate is. How many members generally do not run for relection and is this a significant increase or is it even a decrease.

Meaningless article.

[–] kick_out_the_jams@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago

FTA

The number of House members opting against reelection in 2024 is not necessarily unusual — 49 tapped out in 2022 and 36 in 2020. But unlike past cycles, when the exiting lawmakers have tended to tilt heavily toward one party or the other, depending on the moment’s political winds, the current departures are coming from both parties in a cycle when control of the House is up for grabs.

[–] HikingVet@lemmy.ca 5 points 11 months ago

Of course it is. If they reported it in a factual manner, they wouldn't be able to stoke fear.

[–] Lon3star@lemmy.world 19 points 11 months ago

Stop surrendering to the crazy...

[–] spaceghoti@lemmy.one 19 points 11 months ago

Frustrated lawmakers run for the exits: ‘DC is broken’

What do you expect when you campaign on the premise that our government is broken, and when elected you do your best to break it?

[–] xerazal@lemmy.zip 12 points 11 months ago

You're the fuckers that broke it. Now you're trying to get outta dodge to avoid the blowback? Fuck off.

[–] Fades@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

the kleptocractic fascists and the out of control capitalists broke it on purpose.

[–] CalicoJack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 11 months ago

It's textbook destabilization. We just aren't used to seeing them use the tactics at home.

[–] knobbysideup@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago (4 children)

"politician" should not be a career.

[–] Monkeyhog@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No. It definitely should be a career. I for one prefer political experts to do their jobs instead of random millionaires who buy their way in on a lark because they're bored. I want my lawyers to be career lawyers, my doctors to be career doctors and my politicians to also know what the duck they're doing and be career politicians. It's ridiculous how politics is the only important job where people want amateurs.

[–] knobbysideup@lemm.ee -2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Political experts are making policy decisions about things they are not knowledgeable, let alone experts in. This is a problem. Healthcare, privacy, infrastructure, defense, right to repair, isp monopolies, etc. I don't want actors. I don't want celebrities. I don't want career politicians. I want people who actually understand problems working in government to get those problems solved for a brief time, not in place of being engineers, scientists, educators, and tradesmen.

[–] Monkeyhog@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I want people who understand government working in government. Because government itself is complex and requires experts to run it correctly.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

I would prefer an engineer make engineering decisions, a doctor make medical decisions, and a teacher make education decisions and not someone who’s good at playing the government game.

[–] knobbysideup@lemm.ee -4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Our founding founders were first architects, engineers, scientists, and inventors. The government being complex is a result of who is running it. Lawyers and politicians. Want a new law? Repeal 2 others.

[–] noahm@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Want a new law? Repeal 2 others.

Mindless platitudes like this accomplish nothing but to trivialize the legitimate complexity of the large scale organization.

[–] soloner@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] kbal@fedia.io 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] Neato@kbin.social 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Absolutely fucking not. Random assignment is ridiculous. All it'd take is one or two bad assignments with crackpots to ruin the country forever. Imagine if enough Trumpers got assigned by chance. We'd have a dictator the next day.

Not to mention no one would ever trust if their methods were accurate as everyone would call foul.

And with people who are mostly not wealthy and only serve a single term the ability to totally bribe would be a foregone conclusion.

[–] rebelsimile@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Absolutely fucking not. Random assignment is ridiculous.

Don’t we basically use this process for juries?

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Even that's not purely random. Voir dire is a process to ensure the jury is selected intentionally by prosecution and defense attorneys (ideally to have an unbiased and effective jury).

[–] rebelsimile@sh.itjust.works 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Granted, but it’s miles away from having professional narcissists who campaign and accept lobbying money to be full time jurors for 30 years.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 3 points 11 months ago

There's lots of problems with the current system, I agree, but unless we can have a body of people who can act as national fiduciaries to "voir dire" the randomly selected politicians, I don't see how it would offer any improvements over the current system.

It would get money out of the initial political process, but it wouldn't necessarily create substantively better lawmakers.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It would come with a different set of problems, but they don't seem any more difficult than those we already have. Not that it matters today, it's perhaps more of a concern for some future society that has the courage to devote itself to democracy.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

...it's perhaps more of a concern for some future society that has the courage to devote itself to democracy.

Oh. You're one of those people. Nobody here is interested in your accelerationist bullshit.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I'm just a passing pleb who apparently wandered into the angry part of lemmy. Sorry to intrude.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

If I mischaracterized you, then I apologize, but accelerationists and naive anarcho-libertarians have been trolling Politics with points exactly like yours for weeks. They think allowing fascism to happen now is the only (or at least inevitable) solution, and they imagine some future revolution will allow a better society to rise from the ashes, some "future democracy" for those "courageous enough" to make some kind of ideological stand now.

Nevermind they have no plan to get there except "burn it all down," and there's no way to know with any level of certainly what comes after that.

[–] kbal@fedia.io 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Oh right. I just meant it's a pretty far-out idea and not really relevant to practical politics right now, interesting though it may be. Thanks for the explanation.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 0 points 11 months ago

Again, apologies. Hope you have a lovely day.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (2 children)

He said nothing about allowing fascism to happen now, though.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

People who support an unsustainable status quo tend to interpret all discontent as support for the worst outcome.

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 0 points 11 months ago

The bad-faith commentors rarely do, until pressed. This one appears to have been commenting in good faith, however.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

I like sortition, and I appreciate you bringing it up. If a position has so much power a random person could screw things up that bad, that position of power needs eliminated or divided.

[–] noahm@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It's a perfectly reasonable career. The fact that you're even saying this just shows how successful the American right's undermining of the government has been.

Hiring non-profesionals for a job is not a recipe for successful execution of that job's responsibilities.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Yes, this. I want to see the people decrying expertise in governance sign up with a non-expert to have their teeth drilled.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago