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From America: A Weakening Senate and the Destructive Elites
On what is a gorgeous summer morning, one is reluctant to weigh in on political issues. That’s because the practice of politics in this country is turning sour.
A recent article in the New Yorker Magazine described at length our current problematic Congress, specifically the Senate - a legislative body designed to offer citizens thoughtful, lucid and long-term consideration of issues affecting the country. Senators are elected for a term of six years to spare them from redundant campaigning. There are only two senators elected from each state (100 total) - deliberately putting them in a unique position to work closely with one another, including those of opposing political parties and views, because it is in the best interest of the country to do so.
It’s not happening. Our senators are behaving badly, stridently opposing each other more and more along strict party lines. The recent appointment of our new Supreme Court justice passed on a vote that included only five republicans - out of forty-one. Like a diseased tree, the senate appears in tact on the outside but is deteriorating inside. A two-time Pulitzer Prize reporter and writer, who covered the senate closely years ago, recently said in an interview that, “In those days there were strong men in the senate. It was a much different body than it is now. It’s a very inferior group of people now.” The New Yorker article quotes Michael Bennet, a freshman Democrat senator from Colorado, saying “Sit and watch us for seven days - just watch the floor. You know what you’ll see happening? Nothing. When I’m in the chair, I sit there thinking, I wonder what they’re doing in China right now?”
If our think-tank style senate is faltering, solutions to the difficult problems that face America’s citizens will also falter. If the republican, democratic and independent senators we elect to run it - for six year terms - cannot even bother to lunch together anymore, what confidence is there that the senate can collaboratively address evolving Mideast dynamics, a precarious economy, Afghanistan, immigration reform or global energy issues.
One also hears the word "elite" used more and more in political discourse, from all sides of the political aisle. It seems a divisive word on its own; corrosive when used politically. Wikipedia states that the word ‘is taken originally from the Latin, eligere, "to elect".’ Yet, politicians seldom use it that way. They use it to inflame, to take sides, to anger and to judge. The media elite, the liberal media elite, the elitists on the other side, the intellectual elite…its pejorative use multiplies. Politicians use the word because it serves as an instant connection with their non-elite constituents, us. And, they think we’re to dumb to notice.
Part of the Senate Oath states "that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter". But those taking it are forming a less informed, less nuanced, less thought provoking, and more party-line legislative body - detrimental to its original mission and collective discharge of duties.
Leadership is innovative and inspiring; groomed and mentored. It is not fueled by short-term thought, partisanship, and common denomination.
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