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Monday, March 18th, 2024

The Great Resignation hits Congress: Lawmakers are quitting, too

Author:     Paul Kane
Source:     Microsoft Start / The Washington Post
Publication Date:     16 March 2024
 Link: The Great Resignation hits Congress: Lawmakers are quitting, too
Stephan:  

Most people don’t seem to have noticed what I see as an alarming trend in Congress, an unprecedented number of Congressional members are either not running in November, or like Republican Representative Ken Buck of Colorado are just quitting and walking away. Why is this happening? In my view it is a byproduct of the conversion of the Republican Party to the Trump Christofascist Party (TCP), and the growing failure of both houses of the Congress to function effectively as a result.

Republicans attempt to win the votes required to elect Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as House speaker on Oct. 25.
Credit:  Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post

Despite all the congressional gridlock these days, lawmakers have succeeded in one surprising area of productivity: driving their colleagues into resignation.

On Friday, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) will resign outright, becoming the sixth member of the House in the 118th Congress to quit, with no other public office lined up. The onetime renegade conservative, who’s drifted ideologically away from his far-right friends, summed up the feelings of the quitters.

“This place just keeps going downhill, and I don’t need to spend my time here,” Buck told reporters.

The data for congressional resignations is somewhat murky, but it’s clear that over the last four decades, at least, the House hasn’t seen this many people just quit public service in the middle of their term.

It started last May when Rep. David N. Cicilline (D-R.I.) resigned after more than 12 years in office to lead the Rhode Island Foundation, and soon after Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) resigned to start a lobbying firm. Earlier this year Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) quit to go […]

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1 Comment

  1. Albus Eddie on Monday, March 18, 2024 at 5:36 am

    This is wonderful news! This type of significant resignation pattern has occurred before, but not often enough. It certainly occurred during the period of the Clinton Administration. The design of congress was never to have career politicians. It is one of the reasons we desperately need term limits. Hopefully, one of the up sides of this, and there will be many, will be the creation of another very rare event – an electorally competitive congressional district.