Do they deserve to be reelected?

Michael K. Casler, Las Vegas

Sunday, Nov. 27, 2011 | 2:02 a.m.

There has always been greed, lobbying, self interest, lying, cheating, criminal acts and the like in America, and there always will be. The brilliant founders of our nation gave us a government that provides the power to control those negatives to a large extent, using the power of our vote.

Not since 1968 have we had a federal election where more than 60 percent of eligible voters turned out. Congress has an approval rating of 9 percent, but from 1964 through 2010, House incumbents have been re-elected more than 80 percent of the time, and from 1988 through 2010, Senate incumbents have been re-elected more than 78 percent of the time.

Congress is the engine of our democracy and the branch that affects each of us much more than the judicial or executive branches. Yet we continue to re-elect members of Congress in very large numbers.

Perhaps, instead of concentrating so much on the evils of the banks, Wall Street, lobbyists, corporations, etc., we should each ask ourselves whether our representatives in Congress are worthy of being re-elected over and over again and in such large numbers.

The old saying applies here: The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.