One simple but audacious stroke would go a long way toward giving Washington back to WethePeople. Call it the “going home rule,” or “rule from home.”

The mind-numbing concentration of government in and around DC has made it an easy target for the Special Interests, the most potent being the legmen and bagmen who speak for globalized corporate power.

Without belaboring the obvious, the easiest DC target of all is the Congress, clustered so handily on Capitol Hill. The hordes of lobbyists, who number a dozen or more for every Member of Congress, need no more than a good pair of legs and bottomless wallets to bulldoze their case, winning more than losing. Their huge price tag should tell us that if they weren’t scoring heavily, they’d disappear.

This feast of access could be broken by simply reprogramming the House so the Members did their work mainly in their district offices. The technology to run the House this way is abundantly available.  All it would take to make it work would be the will to make it work.

How delicious the deep pain that would hence sweep the Special Interests and the multitude of lushly heeled DC law firms that do much of their lobbying! How many could afford reliable, high-dollar spielers to work all 435 Congressional districts? Those that could would stick out like sore thumbs, very unwelcome at nosing themselves into incumbent-constituent rapport at the grassroots.

Most important, it would give the House, going forward, the eminence that the Founding Fathers intended, as the truest voice of the people. Its work would be better informed, as Members spent most of their daily lives among their people. Their more constant conversation with the constituency could help reverse the public’s current alienation from government in general and Congress in particular. The voters could come to feel that they had as much or more influence with their Congressman as the lobbyists. With the help of local media, the voters would get a surer reading on who’s paying for the Member’s reelection campaign.

Most Members could then live more simply with their time spent better spent both in and off duty.   They’d be spared the relentlessly taxing chase in and out airports and airlines. In all, this change would make the House more attractive to exceptionally qualified candidates.

The House itself could run more smoothly, probably at lower cost. The long-standing Tuesday-Thursday club would disappear, along with the transportation costs it entails. Television could bring viewers closer to both committee work and floor action.

The standing committees and their subcommittees could convene and conduct hearings by video conferences, enriched at times by grassroots expertise. Rather than so much testimony from nationally known panelists, Members could occasionally share their screen and microphone with a local expert on  the matter under consideration.   The more at-home flavor the Members bring to their committee work, the warmer the constituents will feel toward representative government.

Action by the full House could be made more efficient too by bringing Members together just one week of every month, with the schedule of debate and votes posted well in advance. It would then be much easier for viewers at home to follow the action.

Viewers have become well aware of how much sham there is in the current television of the House floor. When they see their Member making a prepared address to the House, they know it’s almost always to an empty chamber. Its purpose is not to enlighten the Congress but hopefully to catch a spot on a station at home.

Even the closing floor debate on a major bill is essentially for partisan show, less to sway any undecided votes. Almost every Member has been following the debate with half an ear at their office desk TV, because they’ve known for days how they will vote on the bill in question.

The once-cherished attitude and tradition of bipartisanship could be revived by this change. In their week-a-month in the capital, Members would be inclined to congregate in hotels favored by Democrats or Republicans, perhaps with a good deal of overlap by which their fellowship could grow over breakfast or cocktails. The ideologues who currently hold the House in thrall would fade in influence.

By working primarily in their district offices, House Members might soon become as well or better known to the people than the senators. It could prove a subtle boost to the potency of the House,  as it dampened the corporate power that feeds so many lobbyists. Ordinarily senators draw far more media attention than House Members, but that would soon change with the representatives more readily available for local newscasts. They would also be more available to local service clubs, and their invitations to speak would happily multiply.

The Founding Fathers surely wanted the House to have at least equal rank with the Senate. It hence gave the House first call on the greatest of governmental powers – taxes. It has responsibility to chose the President, if the Electoral College fails. The Speaker is next in line to take the White House, if the President and Vice President are lost.

A move that takes the House back to WethePeople could well save our democracy and the American Dream. Government on almost every level is increasingly ruled by globalized corporate power, which has been fortified by the Supreme Court in its abhorrent ruling that says corporations are people with the same freedom of speech that was meant for individuals. Corporations are not about people; they are by state law strictly about money. Money is not people. Unless we act boldly to break this drift, we will soon find ourselves ruled by corporate fascism.

Whether a move by the House to go “home rule” would require a confirming vote from the Senate is unlikely. Under the Constitution, each chamber makes its own rules. The House can prove it’s still the voice of the people by choosing to rule from the grassroots, free of the estrangement that envelopes Washington. So distanced from WethePeople, Washington no longer speaks for America. With a House working from home, WethePeople would be in charge again – and, the big law firms, the lobbyists and the Supreme Court left picking their noses.

Frank Mensel  – October 2012