Repudiate Congress

[Marxist ßastard]

A congressperson can be expelled from Congress by a two-thirds majority, per the Constitution. But out of thousands of prior congresspersons, this has only happened three times (excluding those expelled for treason during the Civil War). That's a rate lower than that of successful presidential impeachments. So more people would have to be calling for expulsion of a single congressperson than they did for impeachment of, say, Obama or Bush II. I don't see that happening.

 

As for assassinations – Hinckley shot Reagan to impress Jodie Foster; Oswald shot JFK because the FBI was harassing his wife; Loughner shot Giffords because she was a woman and she didn't explain to him why words have meanings. They're mostly apolitical.

 

So congresspeople would be untouchable by media, once in office. Media could define the issues before then, but wouldn't an intensely political person – like one interested in Congress – only really listen to media that follows their own politics? Yes, media affects morality, but only as a by-product of other activities; and using the effect to force change on a single issue seems like performing brain surgery using a sledgehammer.

[marharth]

Lougher was political. There is no way he randomly decided to shoot a women with multiple guards outside of a abortion clinic just because he hated women. I can assure you certain media outlets have caused massive attacks and killings. Look at the Oklahoma bombing.

 

HSovieticus is right, media controls the masses.

[Marxist ßastard]

I'm reading it was a Safeway, not an abortion clinic, and that one of Lougher's friends said Lougher didn't think women should hold positions of power. In 2007, he asked Giffords “what is government if words have no meaning?” and wrote “die *censored*” on one of her form letters. Immediately before the shooting, he made a blog post saying “Goodbye friends. Please don't be mad at me. The literacy rate is below 5%. I haven't talked to one person who is literate. I want to make it out alive. The longest war in the history of the United States. Goodbye. I'm saddened with the current currency and job employment. I had a bully at school.”

 

So was it political? If you set the bar low enough, sure! He thought times were bad. So he shot the government.

 

McVeigh and Nichols were in an entirely different league. They executed a clearly political attack that showed a lot of planning. But they wanted to retaliate against specific people in the FBI who were involved with the Waco and Ruby Ridge sieges – and instead they hit a target thousands of miles away, without any FBI offices at all.

 

So even the Oklahoma City bombing is a far cry from media pushing a political agenda and identifying an enemy, an assassin attacking that specific person for that specific reason, and the victim's peers following the media agenda out of fear. It just doesn't work that way: Someone who can assassinate a politician almost always has a deep enough psychosis that they'll settle for the mailman; and after an attack, people give the victim a free pass instead of identifying with the assailant.

[myrmaad]

It was definitely not an abortion clinic. This is recent history for petes sake. :no: I just shake my head and /facepalm.

 

 

As to the question, I think, if you could keep the monied interests from corrupting those plucked from the people, it would very likely have a better outcome for the population. Juries generally do a very good job in the great majority of cases, which is why monied interests want to limit your access to them and contractually obligate you to arbitration instead.

[marharth]

Thought there was a clinic across the street.

[HSovieticus]

Err. I think you are missing the point. Today, the media apparatus is under bourgeois control. So... of course it is rare for a congressperson to be recalled, and of course it is rare for violence to be political. Think of it this way: the cop / soldier will lose no sleep over killing bad guys and brutalizing trouble-makers. Why? Because it is the moral thing to do. Edited November 5, 2011 by HSovieticus

[Marxist ßastard]

If you're saying that congresspersons are rarely expelled because the media strongly endorses Congress, I think that's grossly misrepresenting the situation. Most personalities in media despise Congress.

[marharth]

If you're saying that congresspersons are rarely expelled because the media strongly endorses Congress, I think that's grossly misrepresenting the situation. Most personalities in media despise Congress.

Most media is one sided. MSNBC almost always will support democrats (They have f***ing Al Sharpon on there, he loves Obama) and placed like Fox are one sided towards republicans.

 

They hate congress, but only one part of congress for the most part.

[Marxist ßastard]

Left-leaning hate and right-leaning hate don't cancel each other. They add. Edited November 6, 2011 by Marxist ßastard

[marharth]

Left-leaning hate and right-leaning hate don't cancel each other. They add.

Good point.