top of page

SUBSTACK

FIX FEDERAL DEBT FOREVER

Search

RECLAIMING OUR COUNTRY

EVIDENCE, CAUSES, RECLAIMING


PREFACE

Per the chart above, the percentage of Americans identifying themselves as Independents has grown steeply to 45%. The other two parties are at 27% each; each is very much a minority party in the public’s estimation. How can this situation exist in the country, but not in Congress where the two parties have over 98% of the seats in both houses? That is not proportional voting! And that, my friends, describes the sad state of our political affairs.


Ballotpedia’s polling on January 16, 2026, showed the approval rating for Congress at 15%. Members of Congress are elected and stay elected because we citizens vote them into office. How does this continue to happen when only 15% of us approve of Congress’s performance? Is something broken? You bet!


Why and what is to be done about the situation described by the data above? These questions are the essence of this series of 14 Substack posts under the heading of “Congress’s Quagmire” and summarized in this article. A quagmire is defined as: A difficult, precarious, or entrapping position.


  • Problem: CONGRESS IS NOT DOING A GOOD JOB SOLVING OUR COUNTRY’S PROBLEMS.

  • Objective: CONGRESS SOLVES PROBLEMS – ESPECIALLY VITAL ONES - IN TIMELY, FRUGAL, RESPONSIBLE, AND ENDURING WAYS.


The overall title of these Substack posts is “Congress is Vital”. The disruptions caused by Congress’s leaving problems unsolved makes this point.


What are just some of the more important problems remaining unsolved?

  • America is very deeply in debt with fundamental reforms being ignored. This has a negative impact on everything the federal government does, citizens’ wellbeing, and foreign affairs.

  • Congress is neither asserting its powers per the constitution vis a vis the Executive nor standing up to the Executive Branch as appropriate.

  • The two parties in Congress have created laws and rules that essentially block further competition and tend to perpetuate their members in office. Most of these laws are made at the state level, but by the same two parties.

  • Regular order and rules of procedure, especially those supposed to ensure responsible budgeting and fiscal practices, are virtually ignored in Congress.

  • Congress does not ensure affordable, fair, and sustainable retirement and medical programs.

  • Congress does not ensure a fair and balanced immigration system.



EVIDENCE of QUAGMIRE (Dates are for prior Substack posts that provide detail. See all at https://www.fixfederaldebtforever.com/)


  • Careerism (Nov 12) - is a strong focus on staying in a position, often at the expense of doing one’s best at the job. What causes careerism? Power, prestige, perks, and money.

  • Animosity & Discord (Nov 12) - When relationships deteriorate to the point that they can be characterized by animosity and discord, damage is being done to the organization – Congress.

  • Polarization (Nov 12) – Control by one party leads to less negotiation or compromise.

  • Gerrymandering (Nov 12) - lets politicians choose their voters rather than vice versa.

  • Block Voting (Nov 12) – Congress has sunk into nearly 100% voting by party, block voting. The party in power often does not have solving important problems as its highest priority.

  • See-Saw Congress (Dec 1) – With only two effective parties, the frequent changes in majority party in the House or Senate or both lead to prompt and major reversals in policy and dysfunction that causes quagmire. The parties view winning and power as more important than the work for which their constituents elected them.

  • Regular Order (Dec 1) - In Congress, the term “regular order” refers to the traditional, rule-based, and transparent process for considering legislation — as opposed to ad hoc, leadership-driven, or expedited procedures that bypass normal steps.

  • Failure to Prevent and Solve the Big Problems (Dec 1) – This is the most important of the results of quagmire. The list above of 6 problems just scratches the surface of the pain this neglect causes.


CAUSES

  • Primary Elections (Jan 5) - States have very low primary turnout, lately in the low 20’s% overall. This means that a small portion of the electorate is selecting members of Congress. Those that do vote are more likely to be advocates of the platforms of party X or Y and thus less likely to support the positions of most Americans. Some 45% of Americans do not identify themselves as members parties X or Y.

  • Non-Proportional Voting, Including Gerrymandering (Dec 15) – Electing candidates with less than a majority. Election results should be proportional to that of eligible voters as practicable. Gerrymandering accelerated its grasp as an unfair electoral method in 1967 when Congress outlawed multi-member districts.

  • Electoral Methods Overall – Electoral Methods have been created, most in law, by the parties X and Y. They essentially block additional competition for seats in Congress as shown by the duopoly holding over 98% of seats in both houses.


RECLAIMING OUR COUNTRY


Moisture Particles Moving Inside a Cloud Cause FRICTION Resulting in Electrical Discharge
Moisture Particles Moving Inside a Cloud Cause FRICTION Resulting in Electrical Discharge

Perhaps there is an analogy in Congress’s two-party quagmire with the lightning example above. Due to only having two effective parties, call them plus and minus, there is constant polarization – and all-too-frequent dangerous “discharges”. If our country and its Congress had additional effective parties, the distribution of pluses and minuses would be more fragmented. There would be more than two opposing viewpoints, greatly reducing the likelihood of any party dominating either chamber. See the chart below. Collaboration would be required to get problems solved; FRICTION would be less common.



Final-Five Voting (Jan 15) – The objective of the final-five voting system is to improve problem solving in Congress by opening the doors to fair competition in primary election systems. These current primary systems were designed by the duopoly to select the voters, not for the voters to select members of Congress. Is it any coincidence that nationwide turnout for primary elections is around 16-21% and a little higher in presidential years, in the 18-29% range? The current primary election systems are the most egregious and damaging of the unfair voting methods; their overhaul is long overdue.


The Final-Five Voting System

  • Is a state-operated and funded single primary

  • Admits voters from parties X and Y, other parties, and independents

  • Permits candidates from parties X and Y, other parties, and independents

  • Permits more than one candidate per party

  • Advances the top five vote winners to the general election

  • Uses ranked choice voting (RCV)/Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) in the general election that allows voters to rank their choices and results in a majority winner without a separate runoff election.


Other Electoral Methods

Other electoral methods are also part of the reason for Congress’s Quagmire and the dysfunction and lack of problem solving in our Congress. There is no doubt that there are hard-working members of Congress who would like to improve our country, but they are held back by the power and leaders of the two parties, and these parties lack competition with fresh approaches due to the electoral methods they have put in place. Electoral methods starting with election primaries are the ROOT CAUSES of the quagmire.


Action

In another several years, parties X and Y may together have only an identification of 35-40% rather than their present 27 + 27 = 54%. Do we want them still to dominate everything then?


The reason for these Substack posts is to make the point that we citizens must concentrate on the root causes of Congress’s not solving our country’s problems well. All too often, people jump to working on symptoms rather than to root causes – in all types of problem solving.


“If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” – Albert Einstein


What Should Citizens Do?

  • Make your opinions clear to everyone: relatives, neighbors, friends, organizations, state and national politicians, and more.

  • Since most electoral methods stem from state laws, let the members of your state legislatures know what you want. Don’t be meek. We citizens vote them into office and pay their salaries and benefits.

  • Request that your state enact the Final-Five Voting System, eliminate gerrymandering, and overhaul other unfair practices.

  • Re the members of the federal Congress

    • Request that they pass a resolution calling on the states to overhaul electoral laws to be fair and democratic. See https://www.fixfederaldebtforever.com/ for letter-writing suggestions.

    • Request that they overturn their 1967 law banning multi-member districts. This will send a message that gerrymandering should not be allowed.

  • Work with and support the numerous private institutions that are supporting fair electoral systems.


It is Up to Us, the People
It is Up to Us, the People

References: Electoral Methods for Members of Congress


Internet


Books

Dalio, Ray. How Countries Go Broke, The Big Cycle. Avid Reader Press, 2025. https://a.co/d/j0n5x58 Gehl, Katherine M. and Porter, Michael E. The Politics Industry, How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy. Harvard Business Review Press, 2020. https://a.co/d/dimLs2c Drutman, Lee. Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop, The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America, Oxford University Press 2020. https://a.co/d/dimLs2c Nick Troiano. The Primary Solution, Rescuing Our Democracy From The Fringes. Simon & Schuster, 2024. https://a.co/d/8vqoh34

Comments

bottom of page