OPINION: TERRY TURNER: Congress's inaction is our own

Mar. 18—Gallup polls have repeatedly shown that the Congress is viewed negatively by the majority of Americans, no matter their politics. When both the House of Representatives and Senate allow themselves to remain stymied over numerous issues, the public sees both chambers as failing to do their job. A consequence of such legislative inaction is that it leaves the country's chief executive, the president, to manage the country's needs. That shift of responsibility to the government's executive branch gives the office of the president more power than is intended by the Constitution and raises the potential for presidential abuse.

Congress's inability to agree to new laws or to amend old ones ultimately leaves the Supreme Court as the last, unalterable word on any piece of legislation. That is another shift of power not Constitutionally intended. The three branches of government — executive, legislative, and judicial — are supposed to be equal and interacting, leaving no decision by one branch not addressable by the others. Congress's shift of power to the executive and judicial branches is a consequence of its feckless behavior and diminishes its influence. Those actions cause a loss of faith in government institutions, a questioning of legislative integrity, and even the value of elections. They corrode our entire democratic system.

The primary cause of Congress's dysfunction is partisan polarization. George Washington, a Founding Father and our first president, recognized the Constitution's implied requirement for political compromise and warned that faction (the competition of political parties) would be a threat to the republic. The faction Washington warned of has now virtually neutered Congress. Apparently, no one was listening to George.

Other problems amplify Congress's distress. Leading among them are the rules, privileges, and traditions Congress has established for itself. One example is the senate filibuster as currently used. The filibuster, originally a senator's right to hold up a bill by continuing debate for as long as he wished to speak, was meant to expand senatorial debate and produce solutions to problems. It was a manner of filibuster that required a senator's time, presence, and actually speaking in the senate chamber. That proved to be too troublesome, so the method has now degraded to the "silent filibuster," which allows a senator to hold up a bill by simply declaring it blocked by filibuster and not having to actually do any speaking about it. The senate's supposed tradition of unlimited debate is now debate without sound. How silly.

An example of abuse in the House of Representatives is the Hastert rule. It says the Speaker of the House of Representatives will not bring a bill to the floor for a vote unless the majority of his or her party agrees with it, even if the Speaker knows the majority of the whole house will approve the legislation. This is a clear obstruction to democratic action and allows a minority of the house to block the will of the entire body.

Other examples of pernicious privilege are the influence of lobbyists and corporate money on legislation and the cynical attachment of unpopular riders to popular bills to allow the riders to pass under cover. These and other examples expose methods the Founding Fathers could not have possibly approved.

With those kind of maneuverings at work, the American disapproval of Congress is not surprising. Even members of Congress know the institution isn't working as it should, but they do nothing about it, and we grant our approval by re-electing them! That means we have reached a state where we can stand neither our vices nor their remedies. As the cartoon character, Pogo, famously said many years ago, "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Terry Turner, a resident of Colquitt County, is professor emeritus of urology at the University of Virginia as well as author of books based on his experiences as an infantry officer in Vietnam.