Dysfunction is a Kind Way of Describing a Broken System of Representative Government

In 2014, the US congress introduced 663 bills and passed 296 with a pass rate of 44.7%.  In 2024, 16,000 bills were introduced and 274 were passed at a rate of 1.7%. God only know how low the stats are for 2025 and 2026!  Does any reasonable human need any more evidence to proclaim our US congress is supremely dysfunctional?  Would any organization acknowledge a success rate of less than 2% as acceptable?  While taxes payers fund this circa 3-billion-dollar albatross of a government body, an obvious question is how much the legitimate public, which seems to be so poorly represented at so many levels, has in their arsenal to remedy this dire situation.  

Within this backdrop, legislators continue with their hysterically f-word loaded rants, infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome while lacking in anything cogent to say, bombarding the public with their trite, outraged soundbites that preclude any productive collaborative legislative meeting of the minds. The mainstream media is complicit in ensuring the that both red and blue will remain combative, resolute in their bombastic and affected positions that are immutably cemented.  Clearly, the only way anything gets done is along party lines, or when the tug of war that occurs when government shutdowns appear as the only legislative strategy for action favors one party or the other in terms of public opinion. Legislator malpractice seems rampant; campaign funds are routinely used for personal gain; behavior focuses on whatever will ensure reelection. Moreover, baring any concerns stemming from deep blue or deep red districts or states, it doesn’t seem that anything said or done by those representatives will shake the foundations of their bid for reelection. Legislators have long abandoned their regard for the public they were elected to serve, at least as far as I’m concerned as well as countless others who feel the same. 

Let me be clear, NEITHER red nor blue legislators are faultless is this behavior. I am not in favor of choosing sides or proclaiming a biased remedy for such dysfunction. Both sides are equally affected and deranged. And I realize my bias professes a global condemnation of congress, stemming emotionally by the relentless dysfunction and broken promises, that maybe be patently unfair. To be sure, there may be a few or even many sane legislators left that deserve to be excluded from this stark takeaway conclusion, but any constructive efforts have been neutered and swept away by the overall tsunami of the power grabbing, reckless, self-serving, opportunistic, ignorant, abandon of their majority. Its difficult to vere from the conclusion that members of congress represent only themselves, and not  the citizens of the US. They have long forgotten the hordes in middle America who expect their legislators to work for a better life for their constituents that voted for them and believed in the propaganda that they echoed during their bid for election or reelection.  In short, I am disgusted with the US congress.  In March 2026, 15% of Americans approved of the US Congress.  In my view that is 15 points too high.

If I had the power to fire the entire congress and start all over, I would. At the very least, when congress leaves the US high and dry without funding all or parts of federal workers, WE should demand that Congress should have to endure the same medicine as the rest of our government workers.  Secondly, I would encourage everyone who has an opportunity to vote, now and in the future, to vote OUT our present legislators in favor of new blood.  A strong message should be sent to the present stock that their words and actions have consequences, and so do their lack of words and action.  I’m looking forward to the day that congress will once again work together, blue with red, and red with blue including independents to act in the best interest of the American people. Too many decry “threats to democracy” as their calling card to criticize undesirable actions taken by those across the political aisle. Few can articulate and or defend these accusations.  It is truly an embarrassment to consider how many of our congressional representatives are so lacking in thought and knowledge, and ostensibly in intelligence, not to mention their disregard for the public that they have been elected to serve and protect.