Totally had a pong machine.
Should be Atari waver, but my family went with the competing tech - Intellivision. But a couple of friends had Atari.
Typo bites me in the ass.
It goes hand on hand with the two party system. Political parties are not in the Constitution, but emerged as a means of political collective power. A lot of benefits like committee assignments are controlled by the parties, and thus are symbols of and rewards for party loyalty.
Seniority means time collecting favors and building mutual support and demonstrating what you can do for the party. It means connections with lobbyists and interested parties with donations. That means political support outside of Congress.
Power within the party is earned, therefore, that power accumulates in Congress as well.
How is it democratic? It’s not, it’s a symptom of our representative republic. Collective power breeds powermongers, and a hierarchy for those representatives.