Administrations, lobbyists, and committees come and go in
Washington, but one bastion of the beltway scene will always be the
establishment congressperson. These are the representatives who have been in
politics for decades and are so ingrained into the culture of Washington
because their constituents would never vote them out of office, or would they?
While congressional upsets are rare, they do occur, but as the 2014 midterms
are approaching, more than the average number of people who have called the
Capitol building home for years may see their careers come to an end. Gallup
confirms this with a March 2014 survey claiming seventy-two percent of
Americans do not want to see the current incumbents reelected, the highest in
thirty years of asking this question to respondents. In my opinion several
reasons could come into play as to why people want to alter the status quo, but
the questions remains, why are citizens willing to get rid of their elected
officials now and what do congress people need to do to insure their safety in
the upcoming election?
One of
the major sticking points with the people concerning Congress is that over the
past few years they has done nothing. A split Senate and House means few things
even get voted on (on track to be the least ever by a Congress since the
government starting recording it in 1947) and the bills that do get voted on by
both houses do not provide solutions to the major issues affecting the country
like defense and immigration reform. The result are furious citizens who want
Congress to do the job they were elected to do, but as liberals and conservatives
alike refuse to compromise, citizens animosity for this elected body is
reflected in polls, which currently hold the congressional approval rating at
thirteen percent. That same previously mentioned Gallup poll also says just
half of citizens think their congressperson should be reelected, the lowest in
decades. From these polls, it is clear that the citizens want a change from the
uncompromising stalemate that exists, but who would be the candidate that they
would vote for instead. A race that displays the establishment vs. political
vitality perfectly is the current senate race in Kansas, where Republican Pat
Roberts who has been in Washington for over thirty years is losing in the polls
to political newcomer and Independent Greg Orman. Orman is a business man not a
lawyer, in his forties and new to politics, and an Independent so he will not
be tied up in party allegiances. Roberts on the other hand spent his entire
life in politics, is in his late seventies, and has not altered his political
views since before the Reagan administration. Thus, while Kansans love an
unflinching conservative, who stands up for their Republican values, this
election they might actually like a working Congress instead.
It is the constituents who give a Congressperson their seat
in Washington, but what some of these federal officials fail to realize is if
the citizens of their district do not feel their interests are being represented,
the ballot can just as easily take their job away. The idea of being out of
touch is one of the oldest attack lines in congressional debates, a way of
explaining a congressperson who has become too cozy and unresponsive to
constituents after serving for several terms, but many agree that this term is
quite overused, however in some cases it is just plain accurate. In order to
provide a clear example of this, I must reference Mark Huelsman’s article Congress Didn't Pay a Lot to Go to College.
Today's Students Shouldn't Either, where he argues the congressmen and
women on the Senate Committee for Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions due to
ideological differences refuse to pass along a bill to the full Senate that
would allow student loans to be refinanced. According to Huelsman, this would
have aided many people struggling to pay off their massive student loan debt –which
has quadrupled over the past decade alone—so he compiled data of all the
members of Congress on the committee and how much they paid for college and
what they would have paid today. The resulting data was staggering as the
people making the laws about student loans only had to pay a third (adjusted
for inflation) of what the people paying for the student loans had to make. As
a college student who will have student loans I know having this would have
been a helpful option, but this legislative failure not only occurred due to
congressional stalemate, but the fact that these senators felt it was not a
pressing issue, though it is something almost fifteen percent of the entire
United States population has and the largest source of public debt in the
country. Thus, as Congress fails to see the will of the people and by not being
accustomed to the issues pressing them, the constituents will look for another person
to lead them.
What
makes a good Congressperson? The answer as history will show is someone who
cares more about their constituents then their personal policy agenda, or at
least demonstrates that they do by visiting their constituencies often and
talking to the people. Congressman Sam Johnson of Texas frequently does this by
driving a bus monthly around his constituency and asking citizens to come
aboard and discuss policy issues with him, and right now he expects reelection
by around sixty percent. The result of not returning to the constituency
frequently can have devastating effects which was the argument used by Dave
Brat as he captured the Republican primary nomination over Rep. Eric Cantor in the
Virginia 7th by saying that Cantor almost never returned to his
constituency. Thus, he was able to convince them he was out of touch creating
one of the most memorable primary upsets in United States history. Lastly,
compromise is key, if a newly elected congressperson can go to Washington with
an open mind, the stalemate will begin to break, which is what makes Greg Orman
such a likable choice for this spot because he argues as an Independent he can
be persuaded by not being held to a set of core beliefs. However, in the end it
all comes down to how much citizens are willing to take a risk on a new, untested
candidate to alter the status quo, or stay the course with the safe establishment
choice and endure continued congressional deadlock.
Citations:
Huelsman, Mark. "Congress Didn't Pay a Lot to Go to
College. Today's Students Shouldn't Either." Demos. September 16, 2014.
Accessed September 18, 2014. http://www.demos.org/blog/9/16/14/congress-didnt-pay-lot-go-college-todays-students-shouldnt-either.
Jones, Jeffrey. "Ahead of Midterms, Anti-Incumbent
Sentiment Strong in U.S." Gallup. May 14, 2014. Accessed September 18,
2014. http://www.gallup.com/poll/168998/ahead-midterms-anti-incumbent-sentiment-strong.aspx.
Staff Report. "Congressman Sam Johnson's
Staff Holding Office Hours Wednesday." Allen American. September 15, 2014.
Accessed September 18, 2014. http://starlocalmedia.com/allenamerican/news/congressman-sam-johnson-s-staff-holding-office-hours-wednesday/article_2025b0d0-3cf3-11e4-8eec-e318ce254654.html
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