Perhaps we ought to follow the example of the government of Taiwan, and carve out two new branches of government. In addition to three branches of government matching the American branches of the Executive, Judicial and Executive, the Taiwanese have two additional branches of government:
1. The Control Yuan is an investigatory agency that monitors the other branches of government . . . No member of the Control Yuan can hold another public office or profession while serving in the branch (according to Article 103 of the constitution), and members must be able to perform absent of partisan control or influence. Wouldn’t it be helpful to have such an independent branch of government to root out corruption and prohibit pork?
2. The Examination Yuan is in charge of validating the qualification of civil servants in the Republic of China. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see whether which of the candidates currently campaigning for President of the U.S. could pass a civil service test or, better yet, the U.S. Foreign Service Examination.
As I recall, the Taiwanese parliament is occasionally the site of some knock-down, drag-out fights between their legislators. If we had that kind of excitement here, and televised the sessions, a lot more Americans would take an interest in the legislative process. Once we get them to tune in, a few might even start paying attention the what their elected officials are doing to us.
Personally, I think we’re moving toward the scenario in the file “Idiocracy”