“Sen. Rand Paul (R‑Ky.) announced Sunday he has covid-19,” The Washington Post reports, “and four other GOP senators are quarantined. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D‑Minn.) disclosed Monday that her husband, too, is infected with the virus.”
Social media was not uniformly brimming with support for the Kentucky senator, of course, and some folks noted, in earnest horror, that the Republican who had been shot at by a Bernie Bro and blindsided by his deranged Democrat neighbor had dared work six days in the Senate after being tested but before receiving his diagnosis.
He should have been sequestered!
To let the big “stimulus” packages sail through Congress?
But there are work-arounds.
“We should not be physically present on this floor at this moment,” argued Sen. Richard Durbin (D‑Ill.) yesterday, urging the Senate to facilitate social distancing by allowing remote voting. Asked about it at his Sunday news conference, President Trump gave thumbs up: “I would be totally in favor of it on a temporary basis.”
I say, let’s take this a step further: do it permanently.
Remote voting makes sense in an emergency. Sure. But it also makes sense all the time, because legislators voting from their home states and districts rather than within the Washington swamp would hear more from constituents than special interest lobbyists and, therefore, likely represent us better.
Plus, not tethered to life in Washington, or the confines of the capitol, we might reduce the size of congressional districts from over 700,000 people to more like 70,000 and see real representation return to our land.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Original photo by Manuel Bahamondez H
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