Reply #141: No-Confidence would be a start; periodic ostracism even better [View All]

[metamars]

Please check out my dailykos diary entry, Time to start formally ostracizing Democrats and Republicans. A sufficient number of ostracisms would all but guarantee that loser Congress persons, both Democrat and Republican, would stand no chance of getting re-elected. That's part of the goal, anyway. Of course, citizens would have to make sure that their replacements are actually better people. But if you can almost guarantee that an incumbent, such as Pelosi, will get the axe, then automatically better people will be encouraged to think about running for office. While the ostracisms, as I envision them, occur on a regular schedule, it's probably a good idea to add occasional no-confidence votes to the mix.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/6/21/111936/147/313/539724

From my diary:

The ostracism penalty in Athens was banishment for 10 years. While I wouldn't mind banishing a good deal of our Congress critters for 10 or 20 years, that is hardly necessary. The way to accomplish a modern ostracism is to have postcards sent out to the constituents of Congress persons, informing them of their Congress persons' 'victory' in the ostracism voting, pointing them to an accompanying web site where the defects of the Congress person are discussed in a dedicated forum, and asking them to please, please consider voting for somebody else next time an election for that Congress person's office comes up. The title of the ostracism postcard would read something like this:

In 2008, Q2, Representative STENNY HOYER of Maryland has been OSTRACIZED by the registered Democrats of the United States of America

Ostracism votes would be conducted online, 4 times a year. That would provide frequent feedback (read: pressure from the public), as well as some opportunity for corrective behavior during the remaining part of their terms. Hopefully, any office holder who receives multiple ostracisms can count on NOT winning re-election. The voters in the ostracism process would not just be constituents, but voters throughout the country. (This is required, actually, since if you confined the voting to constituents, they would be forced - in the case of their Senators - to ostracize one of them, even if both were fine.) Preferably, only registered Democrats could vote, and they could only vote to ostracize members of the Democratic Party. (A similar process should be created for Republicans - they are also abusing their constituents....) Recipients of the postcards, on the other hand, would be any constituent household. The net result should be ostracism of, say, the worst 5% of Democrats, and the worst 5% of Republicans, every 4 months. So, when registered Democrats get to ostracize 5% of Democratic Congress people, if there's 50 such Senators and 218 Representatives, then the net result is that 3 Democratic Senators and 14 Democratic Representatives get ostracized. The voting could be held over a 2 week period, and ostracism voters could add comments. (These would hopefully be read by the staffs of the ostracized Congress critters.) If it's not possible to obtain rock solid lists of registered Democrats and Republicans, an alternative process might be to make all voting identities public, complete with address information, and a required online legal agreement that the individual doing the voting is who he or she says they are, and that they are indeed registered to the required party (Democrat or Republican), subject to legal penalties for fraud. (A wrinkle on this idea is to also send reminder postcards to constituents a week before election day, if any of their representatives has received even one ostracism during the previous 2 years, and furthermore is up for re-election.)