Lame Ducks Are Outdated And Should Be Abolsihed

American lame duck periods-- between early November's election and early Jannary's inauguration, are usually extremely dysfunctional-- but they were even worse before 1933 when they lasted until March. In 1933m the 29th Amendment to the Constitution moved the beginning of the new Congress to January 3 (and the inauguration of the president to January 20), shortening, but not eliminating the lame duck period. Now we need to amend the 20th amendment. Remember, a lame duck-- whether an executive or a legislature-- is free to make decisions that exercise power with little fear of consequence.

Yesterday Wisconsin's lame duck governor, Scott Walker, signed the lame duck legislature's lame duck anti-democracy bills that are examples of what lame ducks can do to fuck with the newly elected officials. What Republican legislatures and governors are doing in Wisconsin, North Carolina and Michigan make the case for stripping defeated politicians of their powers immediately after defeat.

Outgoing Gov. Scott Walker signed lame-duck legislation Friday that will scale back the authority of his Democratic successor-- approving the entire legislation after saying he was inclined to veto parts of it.

The move came a day after Walker announced a $28 million incentive package for Kimberly-Clark Corp. using powers the legislation strips from incoming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. If Walker had signed the legislation earlier, he wouldn't have been able to cut the deal with Kimberly-Clark without permission from lawmakers.

The legislation also puts limits on the incoming attorney general and curb early voting-- provisions that will likely ignite legal fights.

...In a statement, Evers said Walker "chose to ignore and override the will of the people of Wisconsin."

"This will no doubt be his legacy," his statement said. "The people demanded a change on November 6th, and they asked us to solve problems, not pick petty, political fights. The people of Wisconsin expect more from our government than what has happened in our state over the past few weeks."

...[T]he measures mean Evers and incoming Democratic Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul would have fewer powers than all of their predecessors, Republican and Democrat alike.

The laws Walker signed-- passed by Republicans last week in an overnight session just four and a half days after the package was made public-- trim early voting; give Republican lawmakers control of the state's job-creation agency; and hem in Evers and Kaul.

The legislation also gives GOP lawmakers control of a litigation authorized by Walker to try to overturn the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. Evers and Kaul campaigned on getting the state out of that lawsuit.

...Republican lawmakers will gain the ability to more permanently block state rules written by the Evers administration. Such rules are more detailed than state statutes and carry the force of law.

Under the new law, Evers will need to get permission from lawmakers to make substantial changes to health care and public benefits programs. Republicans sought those measures to prevent Evers from shelving work requirements and drug screening requirements.

The system is particularly venal because Republican gerrymandering has given 64% of the seats in the Assembly over to Republicans, who only won 45% of the votes. 53% of Wisconsin voters cast ballots for Democrats, who wound up with just 36% of the seats.

Last week, Ian Millhiser, writing for ThinkProgress, summed up the reasons why lame duck sessions should be abolished-- on every level of government :Defeated lawmakers with nothing left to lose shouldn't be able to set the capitol on fire on their way out the door.. Other countries have already gotten rid of dysfunctional lame duck sessions which were established to take into account how long it would take a newly elected official to find out he had been elected in pre-telegraph days and then ride his horse all the way to the state capital to take a seat.

There are good reasons why a nation may need several days or even a few weeks between an election and the ascension of its new government. Counting all the ballots takes time. And, in parliamentary systems, it may take a while for the leader of the dominant party to pull together a large enough coalition to form a government.

But the United States has an unusually long lame duck period -- about two months at the federal level, and a similar amount of time in most states. And it still has this lengthy interregnum for no good reason. In the horse and buggy days, when it might have taken weeks for a new member of Congress to travel to the capitol, there was a logic to keeping outgoing lawmakers in place if an emergency should arise. Even state lawmakers might have needed time to get their affairs in order-- and to figure out who would manage their finances at home while they were largely out of contact at the state capitol.

...On May 7, 2017, Emmanuel Macron won France’s presidential election. He took office seven days later. Canada’s Liberal Party won a parliamentary majority on October 19, 2015. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office on November 4 of that year. The last time power switched partisan hands in Great Britain, former Prime Minister David Cameron took office just five days after the general election.

Republicans are using lame duck powers to purposefully subvert democracy. That's got to end.