Hillbilly wisdom: a politician is a politician is a politician. Disclaimer: you cannot compare apples and oranges. They are different. Agreed. But, and there is always a but. Take an apple and cut it approximately in half, then half the halves. You have four pieces of the same apple. The individual pieces are not the same but they share many of the same characteristics. Imagine the apple is Congress. The Congress consist of different groups.

Take the voting population of the United States– the ones that actually show up to vote. For the sake of discussion let’s call them Democratic Socialist, Democratic moderates, Republican populist and Republican pro Israel committee. They are the voters in the upcoming election. Main thing is first they are Democrats and Republicans and they do not vote alike. Both the D’s and the R’s are fighting for you.

Then you have within the party fighting. Congress is extremely good at fighting. But when it comes time to vote, the members revert to party lines. Divide and conquer. There is limited stepping across the aisle, very little cooperation.

To facilitate cooperation use assigned seating: The seating arrangement in the congress should not divide the group into D’s and R’s. Draw straws and place them D,R,D,R etc. This is of course not a serious solution because the discussions necessary for change do not occur within the chamber. But the vote does. There is one Congress and it’s job is to legislate. The inner members of Congress (D&R) need to talk to the members who do not agree with them. Find areas of agreement and ways to compromise for the people of the United States.

Any congressional member who gets in a fight- verbal or otherwise- is fined one thousand the first time; ten thousand the second; and one hundred thousand the third time plus expulsion for the duration of their term. Fines to be paid by the states the combatants represents. The monetary fines are small but they make the folks back home aware that their representative is not doing their job. Sometimes, the fine will be necessary or at least justified. Continuous outbreaks, however, eliminate the states ability to influence the direction of government programs. After each congressional break the seating will be redrawn. Congressional leaders, so stupid that cannot work together for the country, can go home and answer to their constituents. Yes, they are elected to serve their constituents but the oath they take is uphold the Constitution.

Congress needs to vote on each issue- one issue at a time. Any issue, pass or not pass, cannot be brought up for one year. Make the decisions that serve the nation. Failure to pass important legislation will be recorded by the voting record. Remember representatives, you share important things and concentrate more on them and less on your differences. Each issue passed will be sent to President for approval or veto- subject to override by Congress. The main issue is not which party is in control but what is best for people of America. Forget the party labels.