Progressives need to stop talking jargon without making it clear what they mean if they want the public to buy in. It is wrong to assume that people don’t care. That was the assumption of the media when Clinton was president. They always mocked his State of the Union speeches for being too long and too specific but the public always responded positively to them. People who bother to pay attention to the MSM do care about ideas and explanations.

My only observation is the psychologists, on the basis of valid experiments, tell us that it is most difficult to break a habit and develop a new, good [or at least a better] one. The desire to change an unwanted habit is most important. I doubt that many in Congress, though they see the results of their bad habit of spending without the revenue to cover those expenditures, seriously want to change that habit.

Unlike substance addiction, they do not experience the consequences of the overspending bad habit on their own bodies. Yes, they may win or lose an election, but they will experience none of health damage of crack, powdered cocaine, heroin, or even the “milder” problems caused by tobacco use, excessive consumption of alcohol, unprotected sex, sharing needles, and the like.

Too much power, too many perks associated with “serving” in Congress, i.e., reinforcement of their bad habits. Too little will-power to do more than blather on about the necessity of reforming.

Unfortunately, most citizens, evidently, lack the will-power to impose term limits by electing new members of Congress at reasonable, fixed intervals, say, 3 terms for representatives, 2 terms for senators. We, too, have a bad habit — returning our representatives until they do something egregious — like stowing cash in their freezer, fornicating to the detriment of fulfilling they duties, failing to pay taxes, etc.