Shallow State: How Congress Protects Its Own
8:20 PM 03/30/2019 | Investigative Group
Luke Rosiak | Investigative Reporter
Analysis —
Members of Congress have increasingly remained in office for decades.
Congress has designed its bureaucracy to protect incumbents, shielding them from punishment for misconduct and cloaking the institution’s dirty laundry in secrecy.
Even members of opposite parties do not go after each other for ethics issues, part of a truce to avoid mutually assured destruction.
Members of Congress are old. Really old. The House Democrats’ top three leaders are all 78 or 79.
Democrat John Dingell was re-elected to the House every two years from 1955 to 2014, even though he represented Detroit during the period in which the city sank from America’s crown jewel of manufacturing to a symbol of urban blight. In 2014 he was replaced — by his wife.
Republican Strom Thurmond was a racial segregationist born in 1902 who served in the upper chamber from 1956 until 2003. The nation changed, but he remained in office. By the end, his aides were dragging him around and propping him up like a marionette. Who did this serve?
Congressmen have used their power to design an institution thats first order of business is keeping current members as current members for as long as possible.
How did we get here?
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https://dailycaller.com/2019/03/30/shallow-state-congress-protect/
