(The Federalist) At its best, the legislative process is deliberative, merit-based, and responsive to the people. As an Oklahoma state senator, I am here to tell you the legislative process is not at its best.
Rather than deliberative, it is largely a charade where leadership sets the agenda and those who want to climb the ladder to one day become leader show up and vote “Yes” on everything. As South Carolina state Rep. Josiah Magnuson put it, “As some would frame this, we [legislators] only have one job, and that is to come up here and vote ‘Yes.’ … We just need to come up here and vote ‘Yes’ on the budget because all the work has already been done, right? … That would be ridiculous to expect everybody to just come here and push the green button and go home.”
In the Oklahoma Senate, for instance, 99.2 percent of all bills heard in committee passed, as did 99.4 percent of all legislation heard on the floor. (Read More)
