Chapter 4, Congress, Quagmire of Freedom Summary and Analysis

Congress is the gastrointestinal tract of the American body politic. It is vast and convoluted, its workings mysterious. To understand the purpose of Congress, two truths must be understood: (1) Society needs laws, since anarchy can be quite bad. You need more than zero but less than fascism. (2) People are busy, so representatives should work for people so they can pursue their own lives. The Constitution uses checks and balances to prevent Congress from becoming too powerful. Congressmen must be directly elected by regular citizens and so must follow the will of the people. The problem, however, is that people are still busy and so lobbyists take control. Direct elections instead are replaced by decisions among corporate lobbyists with huge amounts of money.

The Founders set up Congress believing that representative democracy would be the most stable and...