 |
 |
 |
|||
Legal
|
On CongressCongress Reminds Me Of High School
The more I understand the operation of the U.S. Congress the more it reminds me of high school. The names are different but the positions and personalities are the same. The principal is the Majority leader, the assistant principal is the Minority leader. The greatest difference is high school students don’t get to elect their principal. All the personalities I remember from high school are found in Congress. Congress is high school for adults. Even the names are similar. A new member is a Freshman, and old member a Senior, and the rest fall somewhere in between as Sophomores and Juniors. Class presidents are Committee Chairmen (or chairpersons), their cronies and friends occupy seats on the committees. It’s who you know - not what you know that determines your position, power, and prestige. Of course, another difference between high school and Congress is in high school there were teachers. In Congress your "teacher" is your committee head, your party leader, or the person that currently holds the job you want. Your congressional "teachers" have a vested interest in controlling those below them and in some cases, exploiting the weakness of the "student". In high school the teachers were interested in passing you to the next grade, Congressional "teachers" are interested in keeping you from passing and rising to a higher level. Your Congressional "teachers" replace the high school bullies. High school teachers tried to educate you to the "party" line but so do your congressional "teachers". In high school as in Congress the brightest people are not respected while "jocks" are treated like royalty. People who want to make a difference soon realize that Congress is also a wasteland of good intentions, a bog of good ideas that can’t rise to the top in waters of personal interest. Occasionally a good idea rises to the top and bursts surprising all those near by. Because individuals in Congress must also appear to be making the grade, they will gladly trade their chips for your pie. Much like two kids in the cafeteria, "Give me that and I will give you this." We mustn’t overlook the turf battles. I must admit though Congressional turf battles do appear to be much more entertaining than those I remember from high school. In high school a little fist-fight seemed to settle things for a while but in Congress the verbal abuse seems to go on and on. Maybe Congress could benefit from a pair of boxing gloves and a camera free zone. And what would high school have been like without the cheerleaders. Those cute little outfits designed to attract attention and enthuse the crowd. Congressional cheerleaders are not as easy to spot but they are there just the same. They provide sound bites and photo opts while constantly berating the opposition without offering anything in the way of solutions. After all cheerleaders don’t play they excite and sometimes misdirect. When I was in high school the goal was to get out of school but in congress the goal is to stay and appear to be effective at doing less and less. In high school we blamed the teachers, bullies, the system, everyone but ourselves for our poor performance. In Congress it is always the other party with liberal assistance from the cheerleaders. And of course, in high school, Seniors thought they were the envy of everyone. Seniors ruled - not always wisely but still ruled. As in high school, the lower class members pretended to be as important as Seniors but could not quite pull it off. However, even in the Senate, as in high school, some people just don’t belong in the class. Their immature actions reflected poorly on the more mature and adult members. Politics is a profession of traders and survivalist regardless of the cost; skills most of us learned in high school and some of us even in lower grades. In high school the reasoning appeared to be that if our team was better than yours, our school was also better and the principal enjoyed the thrill of the team’s success. Winning and being seen as on the winning side became very important and if we weren’t careful personal integrity got sacrificed on the alter of rationalization. Members of Congress seem to have the same attitude except their reasoning is you must win in order to change things; however, after winning the effort for getting re-elected immediately begins so very little actually gets done but a lot gets talked about. Compromises are made based on the next election or for the good of the party and the present is again mortgaged for a possible future. Again my chips for you pie. Perhaps Congress represents the maturity and growth of we the people as a nation. So maybe Congress isn’t a reflection of high school as much as it is an image of the people they represent. Could this be why Congressional solutions appear to be at a teenage "temporary fix and pass it on" level rather than at an adult "let’s bite the bullet and fix this right" level. I don’t know if the founding fathers intended Congress to be such a model of inefficiency or if the inefficiency is only a result of contrary, obstinate, and bull-headed human nature. In the end it doesn’t really matter: the less our Congress does the better off we the people are - usually. I am reminded that being an adult is more about maturity and wisdom than about age. Age comes to all who wait; maturity only comes through effort, and wisdom only through maturity and experience. Author: Don Miller
|
2003 Articles |
|||