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Should we be allowed to recall congressman?

Should we be allowed to recall congressman?

  • Yes, we should be allowed to hold a popular vote whenever we want and recall them

    Votes: 6 31.6%

  • Yes, we should be allowed to repeal them at special preset elections

    Votes: 3 15.8%

  • Yes, we should implement a form of accountability other than voting them out of office prematurely

    Votes: 3 15.8%

  • Yes, we should have an electronic election via cell phones or the internet whenever we want

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Yes, we should have a protest, and if "x" number of people sign the congressman is recalled

    Votes: 3 15.8%

  • No, however we should implement some form of accountability other than removing them from office

    Votes: 2 10.5%

  • No, under no circumstance should we recall a congressman

    Votes: 6 31.6%

  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 1 5.3%
  • Total voters
    19
I am of two minds about this.

1. We live in the age of 24/7 new network which hype up things, resulting in public overreaction to things. Heightened emotionality does not make for good politics.

2. I believe the highest duty of the government is to be responsive to the people it represents.

I am not sure which side to come down on.
 
megaprogman said:
I am of two minds about this.

1. We live in the age of 24/7 new network which hype up things, resulting in public overreaction to things. Heightened emotionality does not make for good politics.

2. I believe the highest duty of the government is to be responsive to the people it represents.

I am not sure which side to come down on.
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How about both?

For the first problem, obviously we need to somehow limit who can vote, and who would have the ability to recall a Congressman. This could be something like serving in the military, civil service, etc.

For the second problem, we allow the constituents (as outlined in the above paragraph) to be able to recall the Congressmen, therefore putting more pressure on him to do what he is supposed to do: represent the people.
 
There's also another hitch to this ability to recall Congressmen: the fact that most politicians aren't elected into office via majority votes anyways.

In the U.S., we have plurality systems of elections. That means whoever gets the most vote wins, which is a plurality. But that allows candidates who get elected without a majority of votes if more than two candidates run for office.

So under our current system, if three candidates run for the same office, and Candidate A gets 40% of the vote, Candidate B gets 25% of the vote, and Candidate C gets 35% of the vote, then Candidate A will win the election even though the majority of voters didn't vote for him.

So if there's a recall election it would be very easy for 60% of the voters to reject him, even though, of all the candidates, he got the most votes.
 
Redress said:
I want to say yes, but I think it is fraught with too many problems. Congressional approval rates can be influenced by things outside of an actual congressman's control. Senator's are only there max 6 years, rep's 2 years. I think simply voting them out at the end of their term is good enough.

The more I think about it, the more potential for abuse I see. The party not in power in a state would constantly be pushing for recalls at every opportunity. The cost and disruption would just be too great.
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I dunnno Redress, Louisiana has a recall law for all local and state representatives and I've only seen maybe two calls for it in my three decades on this planet, and this is one of the more politically corrupt states in the union. I think if recall law were made intentionally strict, like say a petition for recall would have to be 61% of registered voters in the district to hold election, election would have to have 55% in favor, things along that nature to make the process honest and intentionally difficult it could protect all parties involved from procedural abuse.
 
LaMidRighter said:
I dunnno Redress, Louisiana has a recall law for all local and state representatives and I've only seen maybe two calls for it in my three decades on this planet, and this is one of the more politically corrupt states in the union. I think if recall law were made intentionally strict, like say a petition for recall would have to be 61% of registered voters in the district to hold election, election would have to have 55% in favor, things along that nature to make the process honest and intentionally difficult it could protect all parties involved from procedural abuse.
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Those rules would make it almost impossible to do.

What I see happening is as soon as one party tries to get another parties congressman recalled, the other party is going to take the first chance to get even, and then things get ugly. Do you really trust either party to not abuse the rules?
 
repeter said:
Well since his constiuents already voted him into office, too bad.

Still, however, I do like the idea of recalling a Senator when he/she starts to mess up real bad. I think the fact that the people reserve the right to do so will automatically have our Senators acting better.

And introducing some term limits wouldn't hurt either, if that could ever pass that is.
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I don't necessarily agree in full, but you bring up a good point about job insecurity being a good motivator.
 
Redress said:
Those rules would make it almost impossible to do.
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Yup. That's the beauty of it, a district would have to be completely fed up to even entertain the idea.;)

What I see happening is as soon as one party tries to get another parties congressman recalled, the other party is going to take the first chance to get even, and then things get ugly. Do you really trust either party to not abuse the rules?
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Politics are ugly, and no I don't trust either party to let something go, then again I don't trust either party period. The idea behind making the recall next to impossible is it adds to expense, and then if it is all to be funded by the group behind the recall, the cost would make it so that only those that feel they have no other recourse would even think about the proceedings.
 
LaMidRighter said:
Yup. That's the beauty of it, a district would have to be completely fed up to even entertain the idea.;)

Politics are ugly, and no I don't trust either party to let something go, then again I don't trust either party period. The idea behind making the recall next to impossible is it adds to expense, and then if it is all to be funded by the group behind the recall, the cost would make it so that only those that feel they have no other recourse would even think about the proceedings.
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The thing to remember though is that with it being federal congressmen, the financial backing of the whole party and PACs(whatever they are called these days) would be behind it. I really do think things would get out of hand fast. We do now have a fully functioning recall law, and can recall any politician in 2. 4 or 6 years.
 
Redress said:
The thing to remember though is that with it being federal congressmen, the financial backing of the whole party and PACs(whatever they are called these days) would be behind it. I really do think things would get out of hand fast. We do now have a fully functioning recall law, and can recall any politician in 2. 4 or 6 years.
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Well, fair enough. One thing that could be added would be an elimination of the retirement perks if recalled, and that could be retroactive to election results vs. the recall. But I concede it wouldn't be a perfect plan.
 
LaMidRighter said:
Well, fair enough. One thing that could be added would be an elimination of the retirement perks if recalled, and that could be retroactive to election results vs. the recall. But I concede it wouldn't be a perfect plan.
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The biggest perk those in congress get are those consulting jobs when they leave office. Not much we can do about those.
 
Redress said:
The biggest perk those in congress get are those consulting jobs when they leave office. Not much we can do about those.
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Yeah, true. One thing that they did though in this health bill was to make permanent exemptions from the health bill part of a 5 year vestment, we could make things like that go away.
 
Hatuey said:
No. If you vote for a bad congressman you are stuck with him for the time you vote him into office.
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If you hire a crap employee then you are stuck with him until his contract is over.
 
Congressmen should not be able to make a career out of being a rep or senator. Set term limits.
 
digsbe said:
Should the people be allowed to cut short a congressman's term and recall him if his/her district no longer supports them? There are many congressman (the majority in my opinion) that run their campaign on talking points but don't deliver when they are sent to Washington. Congressman are supposed to represent their constituents and are servants to the people (not the other way around). There are many who are upset with candidates running on political platforms and doing the opposite when they are sent to Washington, their campaigns are a lie and they'll do anything to get that seat of power they are campaigning for. So I ask this question, should we be able to hold our elected congressman accountable to their constituents by being able to vote them out of office before their term is over? Should we have some way of removing them from power if they betray their constituents? I know many conservatives who are upset with RINOs and many Democrats who run on conservative values but betray them when they win the election. I don't know of any liberals who were sent to congress and betrayed liberal constituents (although I am sure there are some). Essentially, we see more and more loyalty to party ties and less and less loyalty to the people and the constitution. I believe we should have something in place to keep the congressman accountable to the people and not to their party. However, what method we should use I am unsure of. What do you all think?
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Have you ever heard of Congressional elections? What a stupid idea.
 
Should we be allowed to recall congressman? Yes, we already do. It's called elections.
 
Sanitas said:
Congressmen should not be able to make a career out of being a rep or senator. Set term limits.
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Never gonna happen but a great idea. They set the rules for themselves, so it would literally take an act of congress for that to happen, they won't set rules against their shot at being career politicians, well, not enough of them would anyway.
 
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