Crisis Point by Trent Lott and Tom Daschle (Read 7/13/19 to 7/21/19)

This seems like a timely read with with the way politics are currently and as broken as Washington is. This book is written by two former Senators and was published in 2016. It is even more relevant in today’s political environment. Lott and Daschle spend the first part of the book talking about history and how our Congress came to be so dysfunctional. They talk about how it used to work and bipartisan bills would pass. Government is not meant to agree, but they are meant to compromise. Something I think our current Congress members have forgotten. Lott and Daschle have some bipartisan solutions to the issues too.

• A national primary day, all states vote in primaries on the same day, or regional primaries if not a single. 
• Change voting day from Tuesday to the weekend. 
• Develop an electronic voting system. 
• Limit campaign length, fixed starting point a few months out from the election. 
• Limit leadership PACs to the top 3 leaders on each side. 
• Transparency in super PAC donations 
• 5 day work week in Congress 
• Have senate and house in same schedule, 3 weeks on, 1 week off 
• Senators limited to serving on 1 major and 1 minor committee 
• Bills posted a minimum of 3 days in advance of vote 
• Return to the requirement that a Senator hold the floor in person to filibuster 
• Abolish dual tracking 
• Require a member to come to the floor to announce a hold 
• Require a year of national service (military, civilian, or volunteer through nonprofits or religious institutions) when between ages 18-28. 
• Student debt forgiveness for national service as an incentive. 
• Reimplement mandatory civics classes in high schools. 
• Private sector provide for service-sabbatical opportunities. 

All of those ideas seem reasonable and good starting points to make our government function again. They end the book with the following, “It is not only within our power to change things, it is our duty: we must work and fight for it.” It is not out government official alone who have to change the way they function, it is our duty as citizens to advocate and ask, and yes even sacrifice our personal wants, to evoke change that is best for out country instead of just for ourselves.

*Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of the US Government. None of the ideas expressed in this blog post are shared, supported, or endorsed in any manner by my employer.