My opposition to lame duck sessions began when I was just a young political junkie. Why should members of Congress who have been rejected by the American people be able to vote, without consequence, on major legislation that will impact the future of the United States?

And I don’t care which party does it. When Democrats do it, it’s wrong. When Republicans do it, it’s wrong. It’s just wrong. Voters have chosen new representatives. And while they may not be seated until January, they should be the ones to vote on major, history-changing legislation.

People who were just voted out were voted out for a reason. Voters said, “These people no longer represent our interests. We don’t trust them to make our decisions for us anymore. They’re fired.” And yet these same rejected members return to Washington, using the lame duck session to vote for legislation consequence-free.

Worse yet, so many of these members use the opportunity to vote against the interests of their constituents. They take the opportunity to get in with their own party members, maybe to seek a new office or maybe to secure a lobbying job.

Blue Dogs are the perfect example. Members who otherwise would have rejected far-left legislation out of fear of voter retaliation return to Washington to vote for the legislation their constituents don’t want. Because the threat of not getting re-elected is gone.

Which would be fine were we only talking about continuing resolutions and other “keep the government running” bills. But we’re not. We’re talking about treaty ratifications, military policy changes, amnesty for illegal aliens, and more. And the people voting for this legislation are often no longer beholden to the people who will be impacted.

It’s like getting fired and then being allowed to set the company’s policies and objectives for the next year. No one in their right mind would allow an angry, terminated employee the opportunity to destroy the company on the way out. Yet we allow angry, terminated representatives the opportunity to change the future of our country on the way out.

It’s time to seriously reform the idea of a lame duck Congress. How we go about doing as much…I don’t know. But it needs to be done. If we can’t ban the passage of non-government function legislation completely, the passage threshold should be increased. That would ensure that only the most important, bipartisan bills would pass. Something along those lines.

This idea of terminated representatives being able to alter our future after being fired is no longer acceptable. Not in a representative democracy.