There is a lot of anti-establishment anger in U.S. politics right now. On both sides of the aisle, we have seen strong efforts by grassroots politicians and volunteers to unseat the Washington elite in favor of sweeping change. The campaigns of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have taken the nation by the storm, with Trump riding a wave of furious nationalism and skepticism all the way to the Republican nomination.
Americans are angry. We’re angry that our government often seems to work against us instead of for us. We’re angry that no meaningful change comes out of Washington. We’re angry at the other side of the aisle for not compromising, even as our side becomes increasingly intractable. We’re angry that our veterans cannot access healthcare, that our police are being shot, that our human rights are being violated, and that our economy is becoming ever more elitist.
But we don’t fix it. We don’t enact the sweeping change that is so obviously needed.
Why? Because we narrow-mindedly focus on the Presidency, and ignore the failings of our Congressional representatives.
A recent Gallup poll cites Congressional approval ratings as a measly 16 percent. Other polls and metrics vary, but every major site has Congress below 40 percent. Nobody in America likes the job Congress is doing. Yet, the incumbent reelection rate in 2014 was over 90 percent. Ninety freaking percent. It’s almost like Americans like being angry and making no progress.
Since that is the America I am increasingly trying to avoid, I’ll try to explore why that is the case. Why do we, the voters, continually re elect the people who lead us nowhere?
1. We just don’t care about Congress.
This is the issue that I deem most likely for the majority of the population. Voter turnout ratings in 2014, when the Presidency wasn’t at stake, were a horrendously awful 36.9 percent, according to data from the U.S. Election Center. Voter turnout is always lower when the Presidency isn’t at stake, but 2014 failed to even meet the lowered bar.
The reality is that Congress is becoming increasingly distant from the American people. I doubt most of you readers could tell me what your representative or senator does, what committees he/she serves on or maybe even who he/she is. Nobody knows the detailed process that goes into lawmaking and most of those that do only memorized it for a final in a course they were required to take.
What the American people don’t care about, they don’t participate in. Thus, this explains the decline in voter turnout. However, it doesn’t really explain why the knowledgeable voters who do show up would consistently reelect the same people who do nothing on Capitol Hill.
2. We don't realize how much Congress is to blame for the stagnation.
A survey put out by the Annenberg Research Center showed that only 36 percent of respondents could name all three branches of the U.S. government, while an astounding 35 percent could not name a single one. Just a quarter of participants knew that it takes a two-thirds vote of the House and Senate to override a Presidential veto, and that more than half did not know which party controlled the House and Senate.
If Americans don’t know that, how can they be expected to know that President Obama’s veto total and veto rate compared to bills passed are both drastically lower than both previous Presidents and the overall historical trend? If Americans don’t know have such basic knowledge, how can they expect to know that Congressional productivity (measured by amount of substantive legislation passed) has significantly decreased since President Obama was elected?
Our current lack of action is not the President’s fault, as many like to claim. Instead, Congress is to blame. Congress is to blame for the failure to pass any of the four proposed gun regulation bills after the Orlando and San Bernardino shootings. Congress is to blame for the lack of immigration legislation, deficit reduction measures, VA reform bills or health care reform measures. Congress is to blame, not the President.
But yet we do northing.
3. "It's not my representative's fault!"
Unfortunately, yes, it is. By our human nature, we are most receptive to those we know best or agree with the most. There are two means by which we absolve our own representatives of blame: party loyalty and community loyalty.
First, we’ll talk party loyalty. Pew Research Center published a study on the origins of and reasons for the political polarization that has led to the gridlock mentioned above. To summarize it very simplistically, they found that most actively engaged voters support their party, not out of any special love for it, but because they disliked the other party. Negatives far outweigh the positives in their studies, and it makes the Congressional election picture a little clearer.
As the active voters who actually participate in Congressional elections, we tend to vote for our incumbent representative, but not necessarily because we think they are the best. Instead, we see the other party as a negative influence, a sickness threatening to take away our rights. So we attempt to stop that.
But that still doesn’t explain why we vote for the incumbent consistently, as many Congressional incumbents face stronger challenges from within their party than from across the aisle. Gerrymandering has molded districts into either solidly blue or solidly red. So why do we not vote to upend the establishment that is so clearly doing us wrong?
Because we know them. We’ve worked with them. We’ve campaigned with them. We’ve made memories with them. And we can’t bring ourselves to do it.
It’s hard. It’s tough to admit your representative is part of the reason that the U.S. Congress cannot accomplish anything. It’s tough to admit that your senator has taken an uncompromising stance that creates deadlock in Washington. It can seem a little far-fetched to allege that your old high-school buddy is actively working to prevent meaningful legislation from being passed. No one likes to hear these things.
But these Congressional elections are the keystone to reform. To the Bernie supporters, if you are so angry with the DNC establishment, why do you continually vote for their proxies on Capitol Hill? To the angry Republicans, if you are so angry with the economic hardship, why do you continually vote for the people who enacted the legislation that made it happen in the first place?
I played baseball most of my life. I was always a poor hitter, even though I was at least decent at everything else. I kept changing things about my swing, continuously tinkering in an effort to find something that worked better for me. I received a lot of flak for it, and people questioned why I couldn’t just accept that I was bad. My reply was, “Why should I do the same thing and expect different results?”
If you ask why we need to vote against every incumbent, I’ll repeat this question back at you. Why should I vote for the people who have done nothing for our country in my lifetime, and expect different results? Why should I vote for the representatives and senators who have refused to compromise, and expect different results? Why should I vote for the Democrat who wants to pretend the Constitution doesn’t exist, and expect different results? Why should I vote for the Republican who is a Constitutionalist of convenience, and expect different results? Why should I vote for the official who refuses to compromise on their “principles,” and expect progress?
The answer is, I shouldn’t. And neither should you. If you want a revolution, vote for someone else. Change at the top won’t do anything if you can’t pass the legislation to support it.
“This world of ours... must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower
