Rod Blum is a rarity in Congress – a member who actually wants a competitive district and a real challenge every Election Day.

Blum, a Republican, believes this makes him a better congressman. He says that it requires him to listen to – and represent – the feelings of Democrats and independents as well as his fellow Republicans.

Our political system no longer works, and neither does Congress -- well, except for itself.

The current Republican Congress, in particular, is on the verge of proving how utterly useless it is.

If there was one thing a Republican Congress was supposed to do, it was to repeal and replace Obamacare. Republicans have been campaigning against it since 2010. Yet they are failing those who elected them, yet again.

Read our centrist recap for the week below. We shine a light on the spin and useless stories from the Left and Right and detail what you should focus on, before people can pull wool over your eyes.

What the partisans will focus on:

• President Trump recently released the following tweet about Time Magazine’s Person of the Year:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/934189999045693441

On the surface, it often seems like our existing two-party dominated system is somehow the way our country is “meant to be” and nothing could change that regardless of how dysfunctional things become.

US Rep. Scott Peters (D-California) serves California's 52nd Congressional District, which is located in San Diego and the surrounding region.

Peters currently serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.

I remember the exact date I fell in love with Bernie Sanders. It was December 10, 2010.

That’s when I happened to tune into a 69-year-old white-haired senator from Vermont in the eighth hour of his famous filibuster against extension of the Bush-era tax cuts.

Gary Johnson and Jill Stein still plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Johnson v. Commission on Presidential Debates, their case using federal anti-trust law to attack the exclusionary policy of the Commission on Presidential Debates. Their cert petition was originally due at the end of November, but the Court has granted an extension to file. The cert petition is now due December 27.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iofHr8-z9mk&t=23s

American attorney and constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley appeared on Fox News recently to discuss the sexual harassment scandal surrounding Democratic Rep. John Conyers and others on Capitol Hill. Turley says many politicians in Washington "put their ethics on layaway during the Clinton presidency, and that bill is suddenly due."

Sexual assault is sexual assault regardless of your political views. It’s a simple truth, but sadly it seems to be lost on the United States Congress.

Only days after Speaker of the House Paul Ryan decreed that all House members and staff would undergo mandatory sexual harassment training in response to the rash of unsavory allegations surfacing against members of Congress, our representatives have turned this issue into a political football.

It’s the perfect example of how Congress is failing the American people, and this is not the first time that it’s happened.