Building a more “perfect union” is not easy! People with divergent beliefs about government’s role in our lives push and pull against each other during political campaigns, go to the polls, and elect other people to represent them. Every couple of years we are reminded that we are a republic, not a democracy.
On January 3, 2019, those elected to the 116th Congress gathered in their respective chambers. I watched the opening session of the House of Representatives. The mosaic struck me. Old white men in dark suits, the traditional solons, were conspicuous in their looks and demeanor. The newer members were vibrant, colorful, younger, enthusiastic, and ready to make us more perfect. The current Congress has at least 89 new Representatives. It has 102 women, 13 Republicans, and 80 Democrats. Its members include Muslims, LGBTQ, military veterans, lawyers, and a bartender.
Like new members in the past, they want to change our politics. I want them to succeed, I hope they succeed, and I encourage them to bring about change. It makes me a little uncomfortable because I do not know if the nation is ready for their hopes and aspirations.
Most of the new members are progressives, willing to act quickly, but with little experience in governing at the national level. Effective legislating requires coalition building, strategic maneuvering, and intellectual debate with the opposition. Some veteran members have told them to wait their turn. They have said no, they won’t wait to bring about change. They, however, may learn quickly how the process works. A couple of them were denied desired committee memberships for campaigning against the Speaker.
At his second inaugural on January 20, 1937, Franklin Roosevelt said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” Those words introduced New Deal efforts to bring Americans out of the Great Depression’s poverty. It was not a call for the redistribution of wealth so much as it was a clamor to raise up a middle-class. However, for the more conservative at the time, those words were heresy, leading us down the road to socialism or worse. And, yet …
George Bernard Shaw wrote, “You see things, and you say “Why?” But I dream things that never were and ask why not.[i] These young, inexperienced lawmakers look at the country and the world and wonder why? Why can’t we have equal education for all our children? Why can’t we have a free college education? Why can’t we have universal health care? Why can’t we have clean air? Why can’t we take people to Mars? Why can’t we have a solid infrastructure? Why do we allow less than one percent of the population to control 90% of the nation’s wealth? Why don’t we pay living wages? They ask, they expect answers, and they are determined to change the status quo. Are we ready for this much change?
Few people argue that we should not have universal good health care; we just don’t know how to pay for it. Few people would argue against clean air, we just don’t agree on how to pay for it. These young and new members of our Congress don’t understand why we can’t make progress. They think differently than the older members in the chamber. They communicate differently; they read the news from different sources. They are connected 24/7. A 29-year-old freshmen Representative from the Bronx, a bartender a few months ago, already has a major influence on the national agenda. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) has 1.54+ million followers on Twitter (more than all freshman representatives combined,) and tweets 8-12 times per day on various issues. [ii] She is training older members how to tweet and use Instagram. She is setting an agenda for the country. A recent poll indicated that over 70% of Democrats would vote for her for president if she were old enough.[iii]
The Progressive wing is pushing the Democratic Party to the left; Bernie Sanders started a movement and the Revolution caught on with young people, particularly. They are now taking their seats in the halls of power around the country. Buckle up; you’re in for a wild ride for a couple of years.
