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In America’s earlier days, congressional representation meant traveling long distances by horse and buggy (and not the nice ones with good suspension that you take for a romantic carriage ride, but the kind that bounce up and down and leave you feeling like you rode a badly serviced motorcycle across half the ruts and roads of the Pacific Northwest) through mud and storms to the unlivable half-built swamp that was D.C.
It wasn’t fun. And that was the point.
The men who did this were away from their families for long periods before there was Zoom, they had to exchange letters, the way John Adams and his wife did, they lived in sometimes surprisingly miserable conditions, running out of money to pay for lodging and food if their state legislatures back home didn’t apportion the funds (over various disputes) and they did it because they believed in something.
Congressional service has become a lot easier. D.C. weather has been ameliorated by air conditioning and heating. There are nice (and very expensive) Georgetown apartment buildings you can live in (while somehow paying the mortgage on your main home) or buy an actual house and enjoy commuting through D.C. traffic.
And now we come to remote voting. Yesterday’s publicity stunt and the Republican failure to end remote voting, a pandemic absurdity, is part of a bigger problem. Yes, if you’re a new parent, making it to the floor to vote is hard. But, frankly, it’s supposed to be hard. If you can’t make it to the floor to cast votes, the only way you’re coming to committee hearings is by Zoom.
Running the country is not supposed to be a part-time job.
Some jobs can be done remotely. And some jobs can be done remotely. Others can’t or shouldn’t be because they either involve a lot of in-person interaction or because they’re serious enough that they shouldn’t be.
Congress is one of those jobs. It’s not something you should be juggling like 60% of the office jobs out there which, frankly, don’t matter very much.
A district elects a member of Congress to represent them. It’s not just a job. It’s representative government. If you’re ‘juggling’ representing your district with other things and you can’t come to the floor to vote, you’re depriving your district of representation in the running of their lives and doing that thing which Democrats talk a lot about… you’re undermining ‘democracy’ or the fabric of representative government.
Circumstances may make it hard to do your job. And then you resign and do something else.
The Democrats who fought to allow remote voting for new parents are not doing this for the voters, they’re doing it for themselves.
As in Ancient Rome, rival oligarchies are competing with each other for power, and in the process destroying the state.
Worse than “doing it for themselves,” they’e doing it to make cheating easier.
To put it plainly. All members of Congress are given proxies from their constituents to vote as they direct. Those proxies are Non Transferable. They must present themselves in corpus to exercise those proxies. That’s the way it has always been.
One word. Babysitters.
Rather than opening a secret level for new forms of cheating …
How about going old-school,
and barring women from service?
Yeah, I know. So what?
If we’re gonna dream about making the nation great again,
why not make motherhood great again?
Mothers have a full-time job.
And baby sitting and/or sacrificing the kid to Moloch are not good substitutes.
Just sayin’
So when archeologists try to figure out why our civilization committed suicide,
they will know some of us knew why.
Perhaps we should take a moment to reflect on how the absence of a father’s presence affects children. Let’s make being a great father more important than any job.
According to your logic, the best rule should be NO parents of young children in our representative govt! Until people’s kids are 18, they should solely focus on what’s most important. And I refuse to believe that you feel a mother is more important than an excellent father in the home.
He’s a woman demeaning troll ( above commenter who wants women barred and limited to kitchens).
Women can serve but need to vote in person to stop a slippery slope to vote fraud. More vote fraud.
If you have a baby or young children, decide if you want to work or not- unless you must work to survive. If you work, childcare is needed. Or other arrangements.
No, I don’t want mothers exempt from in-person jobs.. Then it will be fathers. Then grandparents. Then pet parents. Then people who need to meditate today or get more sunlight on the beach. That fosters even more uncontrollable self -serving grifting for a bunch of elites who are detached from constituents.
You state mother’s have a “full=time job.” Yes, being mothers they certainly do. That begs the question then of why they would take on another job being a member of Congress or the Senate. Oh, I hear the screeching: women have a RIGHT to be in Congress even if they are mothers. We must accommodate the women and give them equal opportunity! Equal opportunity in this case means providing special accommodations, like not having to show up to vote or perhaps attending a committee hearing. Allowing women to vote remotely is a slippery slope. There’s no security as to who is really voting. And of course, then the men, the fathers, also need to be given the same accommodation to vote remotely. Where does it end? Everyone gets to vote remotely is where. Ms. Luna has narcistisstically opened a can of worms. Her actions this week resulted in delaying far more important business being conducted in Congress. Let her digest that.
See my comment. I was not “screeching” I agreed votes need to be in person if one is to serve. Avoid the slippery slopes of vote fraud. . Not all comments by females are “screeching” Get over yourself..
And I love babies.
Please note; When I wrote “screeching” I was not referring to you or your post in particular. Perhaps you should get over it. And it has nothing to do with loving or not loving babies, btw.
I too love babies, but don’t take on a full-time high profile job if you want to be with them all the time.
I’m so glad the first action of this Congress is to vote themselves more perks. I can’t think of anything more important at this moment.
Can you show me where the author was concerned about Kay Granger
Dec 22, 2024 — Kay Granger, who has missed 100 percent of votes in the House since July 24, has been in an assisted living and memory care home
or Dianne Feinstein
May 18, 2023 — Using a wheelchair, with the left side of her face frozen and one eye nearly shut, she seemed disoriented as an aide steered her
May 10, 2023 — Sen. Feinstein arrives at Capitol in wheelchair in first photos following her nearly three-month absence.
Aug 9, 2023 — Since returning to Capitol Hill, she has taken on a lighter schedule, gets around in a wheelchair and has frequently shown confusion during
Thanks to American capitalism the average blue collar worker today has a much better life than King George the third had.
If you aspire to become part of Congress, you are solely responsible for thoroughly understanding what that commitment entails, As citizens, we vote to put people in Congress to represent us; we, their constituents.
As a mother and professional, there are priorities that can and should vacate certain engagements until our children are old enough to developmentally handle having a mother absent in addressing her professional responsibilities.
Feminists have, on their bra-burning altar for women, completely denigrated motherhood and the complex requirements for the developmental milestones critical for children in their first five years. Either your child is your primary concern or they become an appendage to your self-centered desires. Daycare is not a mother’s care!
Congress is a full time job that even with a competent staff requires significant time commitments and if you’re unwilling or unable to do so, don’t short shrift those for whom your representation is critical to the proper functioning of our government.
Truly, women can bring unique perspectives and be of extreme benefit to those they represent but using Zoom and other offsite methods should not be allowed by our congressional representatives–male or female (only two biological genders).
Too many in Congress act like their responsibilities to the citizenry they represent is only nominally important and working remote just codifies that attitude!