A Timely Proposal: Let’s Have A National Referendum to Kick Them All Out

Let’s give the American public the opportunity of a life-time. Let’s give them a national referendum on whether or not to completely dismiss (fire) every Senator and Representative currently holding a seat in the Senate and the House. No exceptions. We could even be gracious and require that the referendum only passes if more than 60% of voters support the referendum. [And that’s 60% of the votes cast, not one of those duplicitous procedures to preclude action so loved by our self-serving political parties that requires 60% of all registered voters to decide the issue.]

This referendum would allow the public to affirm whether the American people truly are fed up with the Washington ‘politics as usual’ shenanigans that have produced the deplorable economic, social, educational, national security, ecological, health care, and national debt situation for the country. It would provide the ‘mother of all wake-up calls’ to the political establishment, or it would signal that Americans are satisfied with their approaches to confronting the issues of the day. [Side note: If passed there would have to be a special election held to replace everyone, and the referendum would have to include precluding these just ousted individuals from running in the follow-up special election, or voters might be foolish enough to put them back in place.]

It has to be an all-or-none vote, because Americans have demonstrated over and over that they don’t like any other politician but they are happy with their own current Senator or Representative. It seems a small sacrifice to lose your own favorite son/daughter; but hard times call for hard choices. And I am sure that your political favorite would understand the value of their sacrifice in this just cause.

Imagine the staggering reaction that this would bring to all levels of government. If we could do it for the nation, we might also choose to do it at the state level. Politicians might actually start thinking about how to serve the public rather than the special interest groups. A double benefit to the voters is that this not only will scare the hell out of the politicians, but it will demonstrate to the special interest groups that they are vulnerable to the voice of the people too. What good will their huge contributions do for them, they can’t buy influence since the choice is to remove the objects they intend to influence.

So get out there and start asking your elected representatives to put this referendum on the ballot. What have they got to lose, if they think they have been doing a good job. And if they haven’t then aren’t they going to lose anyway? Ooop! No they won’t because you will vote them back in.

Well, it’s still a good idea.