Because anybody, and I do mean anybody, can get elected to Congress.
The only qualifications are you must be age 25 or older, a U.S. citizen, and live in the state you represent.
“No educational requirements and no particular professional experience are mandated. There are no racial or gender restrictions. It’s not even necessary to have a clean record; someone with a criminal past can serve in the House of Representatives as readily as anyone else – at least, in principle.”
The website I extracted that quote from (here) also says, “The requirements to be a member of the U.S. House of Representatives are simple and straightforward and for a good reason. The House of Representatives in Congress is meant to be close to the people it serves.”
That’s a fine and dandy sentiment, but thanks to gerrymandering and dark money, the House is more enemy than servant of the people, if you consider “the people” to be a majority of us. (A significant number of House members — 147 to be exact — were against the majority choosing a president.)\
Did I say something about Congress being a deliberative body? Machiavellian machination is more like it. Not to be overlooked is that the House floor is a flowing fount of ignorance.
Today’s example is Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), who was a real estate developer in his previous life. He may know a nail from a screw, but he can’t pass a middle-school civics test, is a cistern of conspiracy theories, and doesn’t know how to spell “martial law.” What committees do you assign a representative like him to? Surely not foreign policy, and I don’t think banking would work, either. Maybe immigration? He may know a lot about immigrants. He probably employed them in his business.
Ralph Norman is in the news because he was on the other end of some Mark Meadows recently revealed text messages. Meadows is a former congressman who served as Trump’s chief of staff (details here) and may soon be indicted for personally committing voting fraud (see story here).
To wit: “Mark, in seeing what’s happening so quickly, and reading about the Dominion law suits attempting to stop any meaningful investigation we are at a point of no return in saving our Republic !! Our LAST HOPE is invoking Marshall Law!! PLEASE URGE TO PRESIDENT TO DO SO!!” (Jan. 17, 2021)
You read that right. Eleven days after the Capitol riot, and three days before Biden’s inauguration, this congressman implored Trump’s chief of staff to declare martial law to stay in power.
What’s he saying now? Oh, just this: “On Tuesday, a HuffPost reporter asked Norman about the message. Norman said: ‘Well, I misspelled ‘martial’.’ (By the way, he’s not the only one; so did Marjorie Taylor Greene, see story here.)
He added: ‘I was very frustrated then, I’m frustrated now. I was frustrated then by what was going on in the Capitol,” meaning certifying the election of the president the American people chose. He wanted Trump to declare martial law and send troops into the streets because the people elected Biden.
Yes, I understand Republicans are “frustrated” they lost the 2020 election. Now, they’re frustrated they lost the 2022 midterm elections, too. I won’t go into why they did in any depth here, but I’ll mention in passing that being for a military coup if they lose doesn’t help. Neither does believing nonsensical conspiracy theories, which fill Norman’s head aplenty.
Norman continued, “President Biden was in his basement the whole year. Dominion was raising all kinda questions.” Huffington Post explains, “The reference to Biden’s basement was to [his] decision largely to stay off the campaign trail in 2020, the year of the Covid pandemic. Dominion Voting Systems has filed major lawsuits, notably against Fox News, regarding claims its machines were involved in voter fraud.”
Unlike many members of Congress, Norman isn’t a lawyer, so he probably doesn’t know what “evidence” is, or what it’s used for. That helps explain why he latches onto conspiracy theories about Dominion that are just plain silly (see examples here). You can believe literally anything, if you don’t require proof. (I know a lot of people like that, not willingly, I might add.)
Norman is miffed that his text message came to light. He told Huffington Post, “I was frustrated at the time with everything that was happening. It was a private text between a friend and myself, nothing more, nothing less.” As a lawyer, I can tell you that text messages and emails are fair game for legal discovery, so if you don’t want it read aloud in court, don’t put it in writing.
Besides, Norman is a serving member of Congress, so the thoughts percolating through his mind are our business. Here I would like to point out that his thoughts show he was not frustrated by thousands of Trump supporters rioting, assaulting police, invading Congress, and threatening to kill the vice president and speaker, in order to stop the certification of a presidential election; he was frustrated by who the American people preferred, and that they failed.
The people of his South Carolina district have a right to elect him to represent them, but I don’t respect them for doing so. I’ll just say that, and let it go at that.
That’s a long buildup to explain why Congress isn’t a deliberative body, but the summation will be short. Deliberation requires facts, open minds, and a modicum of capacity for reasoning. Many of the GOP members have no facts, closed minds, and few brains. How can anybody deliberate with members like these?
They’re not interested anyway. They and their voters are all about grievance. They don’t like the changing color of the country, or that other people have rights; and they have non-negotiable demands, including that we’re going to be like Russia and China where citizens don’t get to choose leaders. They’re influenced by people like this pastor, who wants to take the election of Senators away from the people, so flawed vessels like Herschel Walker can win.
There’s no deliberation to be had with such people. If voters keep electing them, the House inevitably will be a saloon brawl.
Photo below: Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) in his Capitol Hill office
