At its best, the legislative process is democratic, merit-based, and adaptable to the people. I’m here to tell you that the legislative process is n’t working at its best as a state senator.
Instead of being democratic, it is largely a farce where those who want to rise to the position of leader will show up and ballot” Yes” on anything. As South Carolina state Rep. Josiah Magnuson , put it,” As some would body this, we]legislators ] only have one task, and that is to come up around and voting’ Yes.’ We just need to show up today and say” Yes” to the budget because so much work has already been done, do n’t you think? It would be absurd to expect everyone to” come here, press the green box, and leave.”
In the Oklahoma Senate, for example,  , 99.2 percentage of all costs heard in council passed, as did 99.4 percentage of all policy heard on the floor. The surface plan is typically sent the day before bills are heard in the Oklahoma Senate, leaving only a few hours to learn through a collection of between 15 and 90 pieces of legislation. Thus, 99 percentage of costs are passed while the majority of them are passed without even being read by the people who cast their ballots. It is obvious that public hearings on the council and ground debates are insufficiently meaningful. The ballot is frequently merely a formality, and the real decisions are made behind closed doors. Showing up, pushing the green box, and going residence is how we operate.
Rather than a merit-based program where policy stands or falls based on how only, legal, and nice it is for the people, we have a personality-driven program where friends of authority get dozens of their bills heard and those disfavored by leadership get blackballed. Opportunities are everything, and the latest system’s opportunities are totally bizarre and aimed away from the good of the people. Instead of a free marketplace of suggestions where the best bills ascend to the top, the legislators who most successfully demonstrate their commitment to the leadership rise. As people tries to walk the same staircase, it fosters rivalry and division rather than fostering a fierce competition for ideas and problem-solving.
This method is not adaptable to lobbyists and federal entities, but rather to the people. Of course, a parliamentary system that runs on closed-door conferences and devotion to the effective is not going to prioritize electorate. Lobbying and large government organizations are quick to hack into a program that is run by a select few leaders rather than the room itself. They do n’t have to try to control dozens of legislators. They simply need to exert power over one.
This issue can be resolved, but it requires reevaluating our role as parliamentary systems. It means putting an end to business-as-usual, lobbyist-driven politicians. A set of rules govern the passage of laws in almost every state, and these rules, both legally and in each state, naturally result in the above-mentioned outcomes. However, this is not always the case.
The Golden Rules
My former professional associate, Brady Butler, has written a comprehensive guidelines package to ease these problems in the technique:  , the Golden Rules. Although it was written for the Oklahoma Senate, these issues are existing in every room in each state in the union, unless you believe our governments are doing a great job of being truthful, open, and responsive to the people. Yeah, I did n’t think so.
The Golden Rules are based on these rules:
- Instead of all the actual negotiations and agreements taking place behind closed doors, clarity should be the focus of the debates and public input, followed by a formal fast vote on the floor.
- True and Educated Consideration — A true deliberative body encourages public discussion on the qualities of each costs and allows its members to read each one.
- Similar picture: Every Oklahoman is treated equally before the law. Their members in the government should be able to speak up and debate their positions, in theory.
- Answer to the People: The Golden Rules establish a system that allows for public opinion and requires senators to speak out directly to the electorate rather than behind closed doors to lobbyists and leaders.
- Treating Others as You Would Like to Be Treated: Any government suffers from malicious politics. We may be optimistic in our pursuit of being an idea-driven system rather than a personality-driven system.
In light of these ideas, here are the most significant certain adjustments that need to be made in national parliamentary rules packages.
Equal Picture
Decentralizing power, which makes the leadership more administrative than executive, is the most crucial component of similar picture. In recent years, the Oklahoma Senate could have been accurately described as being made up of one super-senator and 47 city leaders. The pro tem controls the rest of his leadership team, how many committees are there, how many payments are assigned to which boards, and how much money is spent on friends ‘ campaigns in the event of an election. There will naturally become a culture of slave loyalty to those in power when one man has the authority to pass each of your bills, remove all of them, and ruin you in the following election. It may stop right away. These capabilities over the chamber had been decentralized.  ,
We redefine the Oklahoma Senate president in the Golden Rules as a purely operational position:
Rule 1-4. All management positions, including but not limited to the President Pro-Tempore, Floor Leader, Soldiers, and Chairmen, may become expressly for the purposes of leadership only, and may not in any way be authentic. Leadership shall be subject to discipline at all times, including removal from leadership positions, subject to a majority vote of the Senate body, and at the majority’s prerogative in cases of good behavior.
Giving each legislator a chance to hear their bills is another essential component of equal representation. Instead of a system where , 18 senators out of 48 ( almost entirely those who support leadership ) author 75 percent of the bills heard and passed , while some senators got zero bills heard even in committee, we need a system that treats each senator as a duly-elected member of the body. Legislators who deserve to have their voices heard are represented by every legislator. Silencing a legislator is silencing their constituents.  ,
A compromise would be to guarantee that every legislator would have at least one bill heard in a committee. Alternately, we could establish a system whereby each legislator ranks all of their bills as priority bills, starting with one and increasing to whatever number they introduce. The committee chair would then rotate through all the ones, all the twos, and so on, ensuring that each legislator hears the same number of bills.  ,
This is argued against because it causes bad bills to be heard as well. So be it! Give us a chance to vote” No” once in a while. Let the out-of-touch Democrats utter a lie and savagely defame the electorate while the rest of the vote and debate ensue.  ,
The establishment does n’t want to be forced to vote on truly conservative legislation that their constituents support, as the real argument argues. They prefer that conservative priorities be left unreported and unaudited rather than recorded. This fundamentally alters representative government. People never really know where their representatives stand when they can quietly kill significant legislation without having to do so in front of the public. This issue is resolved by equal representation.
Seven-Day Layover to Read Bills
All legislation, substitutes, and amendments should be required to be on a public agenda for a substantial amount of time before a hearing or a vote to ensure that senators have ample time to read, research, refine, and collaborate on all measures being voted on. We would require that all bills that are heard be made public seven days before the hearing, as stated in our Oklahoma proposal. Legislators have more time to research the legislation they are voting on because of this. Crazy, I know.
As U. S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.,  , often exposes, it is not unusual for federal legislators to be given hours to read thousand-page legislation. It must not be tolerated to continue with legislation that is passed so that we can discover what it contains.
Public Comment
Twelve states, Oklahoma included, do not allow constituent input in the legislative process in the form of committee testimony. This is outrageously silent about the people’s voices. There is no justification for the public being unable to testify, aside from to further detract from the legislative process.
Paid Lobbyist Transparency
A flaw in American politics, especially at the federal level, needs to be fixed if we are to avoid the financial collapse we are currently experiencing. The insane items in Paul’s annual , Festivus Report , and the earmarks exposed regularly by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., are a serious scandal. This is, to a significant degree, the result of paid lobbyists. Lobbyists are paid by large corporations because, in some cases, they receive more money back than they spend.
We address this issue with Rule 5-5 in the Golden Rules:
The original source organization paying for the current lobbying activity in the following format:” LOBBYING ACTIVITY PAID FOR BY__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Make deliberate bodies once more deliberate.
If the people want to retake control of our government from the lobbyists and bureaucrats, the people must implement these rules changes and other decentralization measures. Little positive change can be anticipated without structural change that empowers the population.
This week, all across the country, Republican caucuses will meet to discuss rules packages for the upcoming session. Before they do, tell your representatives to work toward , a government that is deliberative, transparent, and responsive to the people. Anti-establishment sentiment is at an all-time high thanks to a significant rightward turn in the 2024 primaries in many states, a significant Republican victory in the general, and support from powerful individuals like Elon Musk. Decentralization and rebuilding deliberative bodies are now necessary.
In Elgin, Oklahoma, Dusty Deevers serves as the pastor of Grace Reformed Baptist Church. Additionally, he is the owner of a small business and the state senator for District 32 in Oklahoma. With his wife and six children, he raises six in Elgin.
