The analysis, however, suggests that we all look much harder at the flaws in our opponents than in those we support. We look for reasons to forgive a scandal in our own party, but want to throw the bums out when it comes to the other side.

@Paul4747 nasaah, I pretty much want to throw all the ums out, I favor "drafting" congresspeople much like we pick jurors, they serve only 2 years, then must return to where they started & remain there at least one more year. Salary to be the same with cost-of-living for DC prices. Yes, you would get some drunks, pedophiles,etc.....how would that be any different from now? And IMO knowing you will be facing friends & neighbors after your service would be Powerful! And juries can & do decide the fate of others,this would not even be as big a responsibility. And no election/reelection BS ever again!

@AnneWimsey I can't see anything good coming from a system like that.

Picture the potential for corruption; corporations would bribe people who had never made a dime, with several years their Congressional salaries for pushing legislation. People who couldn't pass high school civics classes would be voting on bills to reorganize the entire government.

I mean, it's bad right now, with lobbyists writing legislation and handing it to congresspeople to present, but at least some of them take it seriously and went there because they believe in public service. Under the system you describe, all the power would be behind the scenes, in a permanent non-elected class. The "deep state" would become real.

@Paul4747 I deeply believe that most people are good & want to be well thought of, help others. That's why the jury system works......even in capital punishment times. Yes there would be total bums...I repeat, how would that be different than now?.. oh, wait, in 2 years they would be home again....facing their friends & neighbors....who would let them know how they did, no doubt! And actual real people having a go at things instead of this entitled elite rich bunch who have No Clue as to an average person's problems

@AnneWimsey You see, I know many of my friends and coworkers have no clue as to the "real person's" problems outside their own circle. They're convinced that people on welfare are lazy-ass bums who are bilking the system and people on Medicaid are faking being injured to get out of working for a living (because that's what they would do, if they thought they could get away with it...); they're convinced that illegal immigrants come here to get free health care and take our jobs (but ask them if they would mow lawns for $8 an hour and you get a blank stare)... they want health care and better roads but they think someone else should pay for it. They're convinced that there is no such thing as climate change.

These are the people I would be afraid of seeing drafted into a legislature. The career politicians actually have a better understanding of my life and the lives of the poor than my middle-class coworkers.

Maybe if there were an education requirement- and a civics test- and something like an SAT- and you had to put yourself in the pool before you could be drafted- then, maybe we'd see something. But a system where any ignoramus could find themselves in the Congress or Senate? That fills me with fear, especially when they'd be getting texts from their friends back home all day about what to do about their local problems. It would be a whole Legislative branch of Trumps.

You're imagining a best-case scenario, I think it would be the worst. Probably based on the people we individually know.