An impossible notion...fun to consider though

[Mythsaje]

Representation by Lottery

I received an e-mail recently from a fellow civil liberties advocate that actually brought to the forefront of my mind a discussion my wife and I have had from time to time. One, oddly enough, that we happen to agree upon despite our somewhat different political views. She's a bit more conservative than I am in some ways, closer to a big "L" Libertarian than a progressive like myself.

Anyway, our discussion goes like this. The United States is coming under the sway of a pseudo-aristocracy made up of--can you guess?--lawyers. Almost all of our elected officials in all three branches of government, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial, are lawyers.

The vast majority of them come from families with political or monetary influence. And this is becoming more prevalent as time passes. It's hard to avoid. Deals are made, campaigns are financed, and people are recognized more from where they come from than for what they personally represent.

So here's a proposal to change all that. It would never happen, of course, since the Powers That Be (hereafter referred to as the PTB) would never allow it to happen, but it's certainly amusing to consider.

What if members of the House of Representatives weren't chosen by election, but, instead, were chosen by lottery? Only active voters of legitimate age would be eligible, but they might come from any walk of life. They might be white, black, hispanic, asian, wealthy, poor, straight, gay, Christian, Pagan, agnostic, atheist, or whatever. There would be no campaigning and no deceit on their part to gain the seat. They'd be truly representative of the American People.

Sure, you might end up with a couple dummies, or crooks, but, hell, we get those already. Anyone who's actually paying attention would know that. The lottery would occur ever so many years and be staggered slightly, so there'd wouldn't be a complete turnover each time. Say 1/3 of the body would be replaced every four years. They'd receive the compensation due them based upon the position as it stands now. Think of how many lives it could change for the better.

I don't have the exact details of how it might work, but I'm sure something could be figured out.

I'd love to hear a critique of the idea, either positive or negative.

Call me a kook if you want to, but I'm hard pressed to see a downside.

[wli]

1. too vague, c.f. Federalist Society, AEI, and Dominionists

[jobendorfer]

2. See Ernest Callenbach's _A Citizen Legislature_

The author of _Ecotopia_ proposed this way back in the 70s.
I'm not sure how serious he was, but it was an intesting
device to demonstrate the demographic gap between Congress
and the population as a whole.

J.

[tulsakatz]

3. interesting idea

that's an interesting idea but I have one question..........aren't people in those positions supposed to know something about the law? I mean, clearly, they don't have to be especially intelligent but I would expect someone in that position to know something about the way govt operates. I'm not sure I would trust the average voter to know that much about govt!

[Mythsaje]

4. Maybe that's part of the problem

too many assumptions and not enough original thinking.