Congress is too stagnant, divided and corrupted to
do its job – and the American people are demanding reform. The left says
“the system is rigged.” The right demands Washington “drain the swamp.”
Both sides need to work together to demand change in our broken
national political system that will benefit us all.
Young people have grown up in this
broken system – where conflict is profitable and short-term political
gain gets far more attention than concern for our future. As a result,
we are disproportionately disillusioned by politics.
A survey
by the Pew Research Center found that only 26 percent of millennials
say politics and government is one of their top three interests,
compared to 34 percent of people in Generation X and 45 percent of baby
boomers.
And a Rasmussen Reports poll
released in July found that among all likely U.S. voters, only 15
percent said Congress is doing a good or excellent job, while 56 percent
said Congress is doing a poor job.
There has never been a better moment since the period
following President Nixon’s resignation in 1974 in the Watergate scandal
for fundamental Congressional reform. We need reform that will
incentivize constructive leadership and restore public faith in
political institutions. Today’s levels of dysfunction and public
distrust in Congress are fundamental threats to our republic.
A terrific new book released by former Republican Congressman Chris Gibson of upstate New York, titled “Rally Point,” highlights needed fixes to our political system.
Gibson, who was in the Army for 24 years and retired as
a colonel, served as one of the most bipartisan members of Congress
from 2011 to 2017. He left Congress after fulfilling a commitment to
self-impose term limits.
Among the reforms that Gibson highlights is the need to
change how we finance campaigns. This issue was a common concern of
voters for Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in last
year’s presidential race.
The most frequent refrain I heard from Trump voters
last year was their call for a president “who is not beholden to special
interests.” Sanders repeatedly said the system is rigged for
“millionaires and billionaires” and called for campaign finance reform
as his top priority. Clinton campaigned for a comprehensive plan to
achieve the same goal.
The constant need to raise cash takes up enormous
amounts of time and energy from candidates for Congress. They don't have
time to govern and build bipartisan relationships. As one young
Republican member of Congress recently lamented to me: “I came here to
govern – not to spend all my time raising money.”
In “Rally Point,” Gibson calls for “capping
Congressional spending limits, full disclosure of all donations, and the
prohibition of
all outside spending” on campaigns, including from political action committees (business, labor, outside groups, and Super PACs).
Take Back Our Republic,
a conservative group led by Virginia Republican Congressman Dave Brat’s
former campaign manager, has advocated campaign finance reform
including tax credits and deductions that empower small-donor
contributions.
The second key area of political reform is nonpartisan
redistricting. We must build a bipartisan case rejecting the practice of
political parties and incumbent politicians choosing their voters,
instead of voters choosing their leaders.
As Gibson mentions in “Rally Point”: “The whole point
of our founding was to put the citizen at the center of government.” He
proposes an independent redistricting amendment to the Constitution,
with implementation left to the states.
Nonpartisan redistricting is a cornerstone of a “Bipartisan Plan to Drain the Swamp” reform agenda proposed by House members Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif. They are members of the Congressional Future Caucus, the nonpartisan caucus for millennials.
Finally, to change the culture in Washington, Gibson
and the Gallagher-Khanna plan call for term limits and an end to the
so-called “revolving door,” where powerful federal lobbying firms employ
former members of Congress to advance industries that they previously
regulated.
The pressures and incentives to stay in office for a
long time or go to federal lobbying paradoxically lead to costly,
short-term policymaking. Simply look to our dangerous inaction on the
long-term debt and climate crises as evidence.
Among the most common critiques of term limits is that
professional staff will take over policymaking. To address that, we can
make term limits generous enough so that elected members still drive
legislating, as opposed to the staff.
Gibson and Gallagher-Khanna propose capping
congressional service at 12 years, and perhaps we should consider limits
as generous as 18 years. That would be long enough for a legislator to
make an impact, while allowing fresh blood and new ideas to push America
toward the future.
In addition, Gibson and Gallagher-Khanna propose
extending the current one-year ban on members of Congress from entering
federal lobbying to five years, which is currently in effect for the
executive branch. The point is that we need legislators to come in with
purpose and urgency to solve politically difficult, long-term problems
and embrace the founders’ vision for a “citizen legislature.”
As I have traveled across the country for the Millennial Action Project,
which engages millennial lawmakers across partisan lines, I have
noticed a divide on term limits and other reforms.
Outside of Washington, I have been amazed by the
tremendous support from across the spectrum for these ideas, especially
from young people. The most pushback comes from people who have been
influencing government in Washington for decades. But without reforms,
we'll continue to witness more and more extreme disruptions of our
political system, preventing sensible policy from being enacted.
These areas are a few of the many reforms our political system needs to be more functional, representative and future-focused.
The U.S. Congress is the only federal institution
capable of representing our nation’s diverse views and reconciling them
to advance the public interest. At the same time, members of Congress
cannot effectively serve that public interest in a broken political
system. Now is the time for reform. If Congress passed a bipartisan bill
to “drain the swamp” and “unrig the system,” I believe President Trump
would likely sign it.
