Three myths keep Congress broken. The first is a myth of elections.

Myth 1: An incumbent either serves the people or is replaced.

Congress isn’t serving the people. The 2014 Princeton study confirmed what we all suspected. While Congress gets some stuff done and the country limps along, what The People want has no correlation with the laws Congress passes. And many laws are passed that a few wealthy groups want.

Congress isn’t being replaced. Almost all incumbents get re-elected- over 90%.

The myth says one will happen or the other. Neither is happening. The myth is wrong. This myth leaves out four other possibilities:

1. Have ignorant voters

Have voters be ignorant of what we all want, or what the member of Congress did. If we don’t know what we, in our district, want, we can’t know whether it’s a problem that our elected member of Congress isn’t delivering it. For instance, many want a bill passed to overturn Citizens United. In general, Republican members of Congress don’t want it. But voters in those districts don’t replace their incumbents.

Ignorance of what the member did to make sure a bill didn’t come to the floor or pass committee works, too, to prevent voters from holding an incumbent accountable in an election. While it’s safe to blame it on the Speaker of the House or the Majority Leader of the Senate, people in their district rarely do. And other members of Congress don’t come forward.

Make it seem impossible or someone else’s fault

Another reason our incumbents win is that they blame everything on others. Or they use the gridlock in Congress as an excuse. Or they blame it on the other party. Republicans voted 52 times to repeal Obamacare. They waste their time on this rather than improve it or try to replace it with a bipartisan bill. They blame it on Democrats. Meanwhile Democrats point to those dumb Republicans instead of offering their own alternatives to Obamacare, or improvements.

By blaming it on others and politics, they can avoid serving the people without losing the election.

Make it hard for challengers to beat incumbents

This is another way incumbents can avoid serving the people without being replaced.

This happens especially in primaries because most districts always strongly lean toward one party. So whoever wins the primary in the majority party has a great chance of winning the election.

Expensive elections keep incumbents in place as well. Money usually wins elections and incumbents rake in more money. It’s especially difficult for challengers to raise money early, for the primaries. In primaries the turnout is lower and mostly the party faithful turn out and they vote strongly for the incumbent, so raising money early is essential for beating an incumbent.

The myth or elections is wrong

So the myth is wrong. Elections don’t force Congress to serve the people. It’s very common for the incumbent to not serve the people and not be voted out of office.

I we stop believing this myth, we’d see that Congress isn’t accountable. Elections are not enough. Something else is needed.

The next article will be about another myth.