It’s amazing the American public can be so right in general and so wrong in particular when it comes to evaluating Congress. The Gallup survey found the approval rating for Congress as a whole is currently a dismal 20 percent. This means our Washington, D.C. swamp denizens are tied with members of the opposition media, lawyers, and car salesmen when it comes to the public’s general distaste.
But at the same time, when rating their individual member of Congress, the public gives that representative a much better grade of nearly 50 percent. Somehow the fact their representative is part of parcel of the entire wretched institution escapes voters.
On Election Day the situation is even worse.
We’re told in most cases familiarity breeds contempt. In politics familiarity evidently stupefies, because an absolutely stunning 98 percent of the incumbents up for re-election in 2016 were returned to office.
Members of Congress are evidently as hard to fire as employees of the Veterans Administration (VA).
Re-elect numbers at the sure thing level only serve to make Republican cowardice when faced with the daunting prospect of keeping their promises that much more repugnant. Sending the same people back election after election only guarantees voters will get the same lack of results election after election.
The solution for our problem could lie in Latin America. While the country is busy absorbing millions of Mexican citizens, maybe we could absorb one political lesson from ancient Mesoamerica. During the Age of the Aztec it wasn’t all kings ripping the beating heart out of a human sacrifice while the populace cheered and hoped they weren’t next.
The situation was different in the city of Tlaxcallan. Inside that city–state was a functioning ruling body made up of citizens from all walks of life. The part of the process with the most relevance for us today concerned qualifications for office.
Our Constitution requires only three qualifications for election to federal office: A minimum age, minimum length of citizenship and residency in the state represented. This explains the frequently low standards exhibited by our elected representatives. Improving the quality of candidate would do much to improve Congressional performance.
In Tlaxcallan the rules were much more stringent and the resulting candidate much more qualified.
According to Science magazine candidates for political office in Tlaxcallan had to first be warriors. This lets out Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Lindsey Lohan for that matter. After passing the veteran test the winnowing process picked up steam.
Instead of facing off with a few George Soros acolytes bused in to heckle a faint-hearted RINO during a town hall meeting, candidates in Tlaxcallan stood naked in a plaza.
Standing there in their birthday suits candidates prepared to meet the electorate, "The crowd roared, pulsing around [them] like a beating heart. People for whom [they] had risked [their] lives in war after war hurled blows and insults from all directions."
Candidates were required to submit to this assault without responding. No Tweet storms, e-mail barrages or news releases. They were required to suffer in silence, much like the conservative voter does today.
The survivors of this pugilistic primary were only beginning their journey down the road to public service.
Candidates today complain about the burden of raising money and spending time on the rubber-chicken circuit enduring questions from the public and asking for their vote. Candidates then faced a full two years of additional preparation that began by entering the confines of the temple.
Once inside prospective politicians spent the next two years being drilled by priests on the city’s moral and legal code. Our candidates who claim to be conservatives usually have only a vague idea of what conservatism means and little practical idea of how to serve in office as a constitutionally literate elected official.
Tlaxcallan candidates gained their knowledge through the school of hard knocks. When they claimed to bleed Tlaxcallan values they meant it! Candidates "would be starved, beaten with spiked whips when he fell asleep, and required to cut himself in bloodletting rituals."
When their training was complete these newly scarred and minted officials would join the city’s senate and be one of approximately 100 other graduates that made military and economic decisions for the people they represented.
Our system is based on personal ambition. The Tlaxcallan system appears to have been based on personal commitment and a high tolerance for pain. When one thinks of the early successful city-states: Sparta, Athens, Rome, and Tlaxcallan all had frontline military service as a requirement for holding office.
It may not have been the perfect qualification but I think it beats a law degree.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read more of Michael Shannon's reports — Go Here Now.