Wednesday, February 17, 2010
"How to Get Our Democracy Back: If You Want Change, You Have to Change Congress"
Perhaps you can argue with this. I can't...
At BigGovernment.com, Lawrence Lessig writes about why he thinks Congress is the problem:
"At the center of our government lies a bankrupt institution: Congress. Not financially bankrupt, at least not yet, but politically bankrupt. Bush v. Gore notwithstanding, Americans’ faith in the Supreme Court remains extraordinarily high–76 percent have a fair or great deal of “trust and confidence” in the Court. Their faith in the presidency is also high–61 percent.
But consistently and increasingly over the past decade, faith in Congress has collapsed–slowly, and then all at once. Today it is at a record low. Just 45 percent of Americans have “trust and confidence” in Congress; just 25 percent approve of how Congress is handling its job. A higher percentage of Americans likely supported the British Crown at the time of the Revolution than support our Congress today.
The source of America’s cynicism is not hard to find. Americans despise the inauthentic."
