In recent years (and months), a fire may have been sparked underneath your butt for political change. Never before in recent history have we seen a more divided nation. If you look at my post about finding the best president (through statistics), you’ll notice how approval ratings are at an all-time low. As of now, only 40% of Americans approve of the job Donald Trump is doing as president. What needs to change in American politics?
There’s no denying it from both sides of the line drawn in the sand, something needs to give. I’m not writing this as a liberal, independent, or republican; I’m writing this as an American. Being an “American” these days isn’t the glorious picture of a man waving a flag while a bald eagle soars overhead. In fact, I’d liken it to more of a man using a tattered flag to cover his body as he has no money for clothes. Look around at other “first world” countries. The United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Germany, and Australia (to name a few) are all passing the USA in HDI (Human Development Index). The US Dollar is its lowest since COVID. A country desired for strength and prosperity is becoming a shell of itself before our very eyes.
Legislators are getting into heated verbal altercations with their own constituents (such as this from Nancy Mace), dodging questions at town halls and refusing “the other side” entry into said town halls, manipulating the stock market and having insider information when to/not to invest, and refusing to hang their hats for retirement. Something needs to budge.
In this post, I’ll analyze the ways politicians force their ways and stay in power and what we as American citizens need to do to put the power back into our own hands.
Separation of Church and State
Something that has been needed for the longest of time is the separation of church and state. Is it a well-known fact the majority of Americans are Christian (Catholic, Protestant, Lutheran…)? Arguably, yes. According to a Pew Research Survey, 63% of Americans identify as Christian (as of 2024, and which shows a decline from 78% in 2007). Protestants and Catholics are both more likely to affiliate as Republican, while Mormons are 75% Republican to a 23% Democrat (or democrat leaning). Looking just at this statistic, you’d think Republicans can control the government for a long time. However, this affects very little in controlling a party. What I want to discuss is the laws that surround the church seeping into legislation and laws.
Supreme Court Rulings
Let’s take a small dig into the Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade (1973). The case itself was largely argued against by Christian groups advocating the for the protection of the unborn child based on their religious ideology. Recently, in June 2022, a majority Republican Supreme Court overturned the decision once again falling back on an antiquated way of thinking. Over the summer of 2023, two decisions were made in favor of Christian bias. Groff, an Evangelical Christian, argued that he should not have to work on Sunday as it is seen as a day of worship, rest, and celebration. The decision ruled mostly in favor of Groff. The official ruling clarified the standard of religious accommodations, stating that unless it would cause “substantial increased costs”, there was need to deny the accommodations.
Another ruling which sided with more of a conservative Christian view would be 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis (similar to Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. This ruling ended in the decision that the baker had violated Colorado’s nondiscrimination law after denying a same-sex couple a wedding cake.). It’s useful having the background information behind the Masterpiece Cakeshop ruling, as a similar law is in place (Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act) for this ruling. The Supreme Court in the 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis ruling ruled in favor 303 Creative LLC, stating a business need not be required to create wedding websites for homosexual couples. The cakeshop case was in 2012 while the wedding website case was more recent, in 2023.
Daily Tidings
Many states and the country as a whole have laws based on Christianity. Some are easy to see, some are not. For example, in many states businesses cannot sell alcohol on Sunday. Some businesses aren’t even open on Sunday for the Lord’s day. On US currency, the words “In God We Trust” are inscribed. We pledge allegiance “Under God”. Congress opens with a prayer and the President *usually* swears on a Bible in their Presidential oath. These small little instances of religion sprinkled throughout have no effect but linger still.
Do you understand how many tax dollars we could earn from taxing churches? We would be better off as individuals and have to pay less on the daily. It’s just something else to consider by separating the church from the government.
Science Denial
It’s no myth that science is commonly denied when put up against religious beliefs. Believe it or not, 40% of Americans are creationist, the thought process that evolution is false. This belief lies in the idea that God created all creatures and things to be to his liking. Humans did not evolve from hominids, based on this theory. A smaller percentage of people (~25%) don’t believe in climate change. Why am I bringing all of this information up if it’s not related to the government? The problem rests in science deniers sitting in office, enacting laws against common logic.
In 2017, Donald Trump notably pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement, created to mitigate climate change. Trump argued the agreement would “undermine” the US economy and put the US at a disadvantage globally. This closed-minded thinking of short term rather than long term had and will continue to have severe consequences.
Term Limits
I think we can all agree we need constant changing of lawmakers. House, Senate, and even Supreme Court members need to be held to a standard. While they don’t share the same power as the president, they are behind the laws made to govern our society. The average age of someone in the House of Representatives is 57.9 years old, Senate being 64. Members of the House are, on average, 47.8 years old when sworn in while Senate members are 50.4, a noticeable decrease from the previous congresses (the 117th Congress newly admitted Senate members were 56.1 years old on average). I will refrain from using age based arguments in this section, as I plan to speak on age limits soon.
More on Congress
Thanks to the senate.gov website, I have a lot of valuable information at the ready. Through this site, we can see the longest serving senate members of previous and current congresses. Historically, Democrats were more likely to hold spots in the senate for longer. Robert Byrd, a Democrat from West Virginia, held his seat for 51 years and 5 months. The following four range from 46 years and 9 months to 49 years and 11 months. Imagine for a minute, if you will, having the same leadership for 50+ years. Starting to feel a little bit like a monarchy or dictatorship, is it not?
Times are constantly changing and it’s important to have people that represent the public body. For instance, the US Census of 2024 gave a prediction that 60.6% of people fall between the ages of 18 and 65. Of 99 Senate members, there are 53 above the age of 65. Over half of the Senate falls into 17.7% of the US population. It’s actually easier to count the number of Senate members that weren’t born before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. This equals roughly 75% of our Senate, which is quite sad.
Now to the House, which is slightly less guilty of the Senate’s undiscussed crimes. While the longest serving member of the Senate was 51 years, the longest of the house was John Dingell Jr. serving for just over 59 years. He’s followed by Jamie Whitten, John Conyers Jr., and Carl Vinson, all above 50 years served.
Now I talked about pushing age limits past the term limits section, which I will do. However, it’s vital to talk about the elders in our Congress continuing to run things. The majority of people enjoy comfort and similarities. When something is done right, everyone will remain quiet. It’s when change happens (mostly negative) that people can grow restless. These people in our congress will stay as long the majority of the people who vote to keep them in want.
Age Limits
Term and age limits are very closely related. Through age, wisdom, and experience, senators and members of the House can keep their positions for decades. There is fear in the unknown, which for this, would be voting in new representatives. There is an age limit for the minimum qualifications for a senator: 30 years old. In the House, the age qualification is set to 25. If we can set this, why can’t we set this a maximum age? When should we draw a line in the sand that a person’s mental capacities are declining and youth is needed?
As I’ve stated in the term limit section above, there’s a large population being under-represented in our congress. 75% of the Senate is 65 and older. The House, a little younger, has 182 out of 435 voting members above or at the age of 65, which in a percentage is ~42%. Again, we don’t need to examine the census data of where the percentages lie. As of June 2024 (the easiest data to find), there are only 30 representatives under the age of 40. Two are senators and the rest of House members.
I could talk endlessly about these facts, but without context, the facts have no meaning whatsoever. Look at our last two presidents: Joe Biden and Donald Trump. They were the two oldest presidents in America’s history, twice the median age of Americans (39). More than a decade above the average age of retirement. I could go on. A study done by Jo Mhairi Hale on cognitive impairment in the US states “Approximately (2/3) of Americans experience some level of cognitive impairment at an average age of…70 years”.
Literacy and Citizenship Test
Now we’ve passed through the quantifiable matters and my opinion will seep out more and more. For my first fully opinionated idea, we need to have any politician pass a literacy and citizenship test. I literally see no drawbacks to this. If someone’s representing me and my country, they need to be able to speak. They need to be able to read. Give them a couple of amendments or the Bill of Rights and have them recite it, checking for stuttering, skipping, or mispronunciations. Our president has the Constitution framed in his office but I haven’t seen a lick of evidence that shows he can read any of it. Trump rambles so much in speeches that I doubt he actually has a script to read off of.
Some people may argue that being an American citizen is already beyond passing the citizenship test. In all honesty, non-American citizens have so much more work to do to become citizens than those granted citizenship as a birthright. They research, take classes, and then have to do a test of their knowledge of this country. Every person I speak to that has been through this process would school any birthright American in knowledge about their own country. Let’s do a small test, just for fun. Can you tell me how many amendments the Constitution has? How many years do we elect a senator for? Name all three branches of the federal US government.
Could you answer all three? I doubt it. If we’re scared of migrants trying to get into the country and become citizens, let’s hold our politicians to the same levels. Our politicians should know the rules and laws of the land just the same as us. Even further, make sure they can better understand the implications of what they’re doing, as well as the history behind our country.
No Big Money Endorsements
We’ve seen recently how important money endorsements are to candidates. In the 2024 Presidential election, the Republican party contributed a lot of money to elect and persuade. Does $291,482,587 sound like a lot of money to you? That’s just Elon Musk’s contribution to electing Donald Trump, by the way. The average US worker can aim to earn $1.7 million over their lifetime. One individual contributed 171x the amount someone hopes to see in their lifetime. For one person. For one election. This goes both ways of course, but this election was the largest example. Michael Bloomberg, in the same election as the largest Democratic donator, gave over $60 million.
Now to prove fiction from fact, I dug into the party affiliation based on incomes. Going into this, I would’ve thought for sure the upper class would be Republican. Upper class income citizens typically benefit off of tax breaks and care more deeply about Republican-rooted issues. However, I learned that Upper income individuals lean more blue (53%-46%). Lower income, as originally thought, also leans significantly blue (58%-36%). Middle and Upper-Middle income individuals lean slightly more red than blue. Why include all of this information, you may ask? I added this to show that the individual payments aren’t as lopsided as I traditionally thought. Even I can change and learn.
Business Donations
Let’s completely eliminate business donations to politicians. Let’s run through a quick example problem to help shed some light on what I’m getting at. Business A has a Republican owner with a majority Democratic workforce. If Business A makes a donation to their right-leaning politician, it puts the workforce in a sticky situation. Do they support their business or their businesses’ political affiliation. All in all, we should completely keep politics out of the workforce.
In Short, the Summary
Politics are a part of our life no matter how badly we try to ignore it. I, for one, would choose to completely block out politics from my life if possible. However, it’s something that affects every one of us whether we like it or not. These small tips I’ve tossed into this little post aren’t targeted at one party and I’m horribly sorry (not) if you were offended by said things. I genuinely think some of, if not all, of these changes would greatly give the average citizen more of a voice. Politics right now are disjointed and hateful when it should be together.
I love living in the United States and glad for the freedoms we have. However, it’s taking a rapid turn for the worst. As much as I love this country, it’s always had flaws that need fixing. The church has always been deeply rooted in the country. Term limits and age limits (for various positions) have never existed. We’ve had politicians that never necessarily needed to read and certainly have currently sitting politicians that wouldn’t pass a citizenship test.
If you have any other ideas on how to fix the government, comment them below.