On Democratic Elections

We are about to embark on the selection of the next Congress of the United States. Every two years our wonderful nation selects four hundred and thirty five men and women to represent the two hundred and eighty million souls that inhabit this country. The Constitution mandates that the House of Representatives be populated with representatives that are directly elected by the people that they represent. This is why a vacancy in this body must be filled by a special election, not by an appointment by a Governor or State House.

In the district in Missouri in which I live, my representative represents me and 644,443 other Missourians, and should be representing our collective interests to the Federal Government. What are the issues that Missouri should care about in this election cycle, at the Federal level?

In my mind, the number one issue that the nation faces is whether we even need a Congress these days. The laws that are on the books right now are ignored at will by the Administration because we are ‘at war’. The fact that we are ‘at war’ is not debated at all by the existing members of Congress, despite the fact that they did not declare us to be ‘at war’. The fact that there are men in uniform who are shooting and being shot at in a country far away must mean that we are ‘at war’. Another Congress gave the President permission to have our soldiers shoot at other soldiers, and that has meant that we are ‘at war’. I know that our Constitution only gives the power to declare the nation to be ‘at war’ to the Congress, but that only holds true if the men and women representing us enforce it. The President has been saying for quite some time that we are ‘at war’ with Terror. However, the Congress has never declared this war either.

Like I said, because we are ‘at war’ our President has claimed extra power for himself to ignore duly passed and signed legislation that limits his Executive power. He has in some cases suspended Habeas Corpus without permission from Congress. He has broken federal law that regulates when and how he can collect intelligence on citizens of the nation on American soil. He has caused men, women and children that were in the custody of the USA to be tortured in violation of Federal law and ratified treaties. He has spent our national treasure in ways that were contrary to the law of the land. All of this because we are ‘at war’ with Terror. Will it end when Terror surrenders? Will there be a huge national celebration at VT day? Can we expect that a future President will cede all of these ‘War Powers’ back to Congress after that glorious day? Of course since the President decided that we were ‘at war’ it will be up to the President to say that we have finally won (or lost) the war, so I would expect that this future President would have to want to give up these powers in order to be persuaded that the ‘war’ is over.