A better answer is a smarter, watchdog press that actually educates the public to make responsible voting decisions in their own self-interest. That would be in sharp contrast to the pandering corporate press interested only in making a 20 percent return on investment by keeping people ignorant.

But, this problem is in no way unique to Parker Griffith, it pevades the entire membership of Congress, to the extent that a congress member who puts constituents first is a rarity.

How did this happen? There are several igredients in the toxic brew including lack of congressional term limits, little if any competition outside the two monopoly political parties, and lack of attention on the part of a significant part of the electorate.

Two of those things could be fixed relatively quickly.

Term limits could be imposed — it would take a federal constitutional amendment to do that — and state laws that effectively limit ballot access to Democrats and Republicans only could be changed. The latter would take a state-by-state effort, which in fact is already underway in the form of a political action group formed by libertarians, greens, and some other disgruntled third party types.

Term limits, although it would be a major struggle to get them enacted, would be the most effective part of the remedy. Many senators and congress members have been on Capitol Hill for decades. They are in no sense the “citizen legislators” envisioned by Madison and others — individuals who would serve a couple or three terms, at most, and then go back to being farmers, merchants, etc.

Instead, being in Congress has become a lifelong profession; members of Congress are much cozier with lobbyists and bureaucrats than their own constitutents. After all, many if not most have spent most of their adult lives in the Washington area. Effectively, they represent the Alice in Wonderland assembly of lobbyists, rent-seekers, special interests and the like who inhabit greater DC.

Again, Howie’s sentiments are correct, but simply “calling on the voters” of Parker Griffith’s district to do the right thing is not going to fundamentally change the nature of Congress, even if they boot Griffith out in favor of someone else. After all, there are 434 other members of the House, as well as 100 senators.

Without term limits, there will almost always be 90 percent or better incumbents getting re-elected, there will always be a coterie of decades-long members neck deep in the special interest corruption festival, and there will hardly ever be any “Mister Smiths going to Washington.”