Democracy Without Elections

Imagine walking into a job where you were selected precisely because you have no idea what you're doing. Imagine that you don't know any of your colleagues. Imagine that none of them have any experience, either. Imagine being put in charge of a trillion-dollar organization that manages a tens-of-trillions-of-dollars nation. Imagine that people's lives depend on your doing this correctly; people literally die when you do it wrong.

I'm hardly one to defend the Congress, which has a justifiably low approval rating -- even though most people approve of their actual Congressman. But most people seem to have no idea what the Congress actually does. They seem to believe that it's just like arguing on the Internet: a bunch of people who have no idea what they're talking about, followed by a binding vote.

You won't fix Congress without knowing what Congress' job actually is.