RNS Quote of the Day: 10/07/09

From a post about Michelle Bachman’s quote on how the Democrats are embarrassed about their health care “reform” bills currently making their way through Congress.

Let’s pause for a moment and reflect on how our government is supposed to run.  Our style of representative government is predicated upon the idea that we elect politicians to go to the various legislatures and then represent the will of those who elected them.  An important part of that system, especially at the national level, is transparency and consensus.  Our founders intended that nothing become law until it was debated, scrutinized and approved by two legislative bodies and the chief executive with one of the legislative bodies requiring more than simple majority approval.

They also intended that the people be able to know what laws were being debated and how their representatives were voting on them.  Though the founders couldn’t have foreseen the technology that would make sharing documents on the internet possible, this is why votes of Congress are a matter of record and why both houses of Congress have galleries available to the.

For the Democrats to deny the public access to bills before they’re voted on, for Democrats to deny the public time to read the bills and then communicate with their representatives about them, is an act that is in direct contradiction with how representative government is supposed to work.
Rob @ SayAnthing blog

During the Bush years, one of the things I would constantly read on the leftosphere was how much better the Democrats were at “governing”.

I’ve written here before on the topic of how I feel about being “governed”.

But I must say, this is not how I though it would feel to be “governed”. I laugh at them way too much. Of course, this is only the first year. Maybe they take time to warm up?