Discussion: A Tiny Sliver of Congress Isn't As Terrible As You Think

Discussion for article #235914

Thank You, Will Kramer.

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I worked on Capitol Hill for five years in two different Congressional offices. Like Kramer, I found staffs had more integrity many times than their bosses.

There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.

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Maybe I’m just jaded/overly sensitive from years of living in a red state where, “government waste” is almost always used as code to justify cutting anything that helps the poor and minorities, but really? An article that focuses in on those cutting “government waste” as the “tiny sliver” of decency in congress, while ignoring all those doing hard work defending programs like Social Security, CHIP, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.? That is not to say there isn’t government waste that needs cutting, but talking about that like it is the only worth while stuff being done in congress sounds a little more like something out of the Republican “Government is the problem” playbook, then the more balanced perspective one would expect from a Progressive news blog.

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Maybe try reading the article again? This time for comprehension, rather than projecting what you want to read into it.

While I agree with your concern thepsyker, I’m still grateful TPM published this article. The far right has been very successful selling their “government and all those in it (except for me and Ronny) are evil” narrative even progressives use the same frame to discuss politics. 25 years ago I left a budding political career for a number of reasons mostly relating to the need to be more financially independent. It broke my heart then and it still does that I gave up the opportunity to help in the ways I could within state government. The staff were some of the most dedicated, bright, hardworking and honorable people I have had the pleasure to work with in any setting. I now work in a relatively apolitical environment and rarely mention my experience in politics because the distance between a typical person’s impression of politicians and reality is so vast there is no way for them to understand my perspective. Sure, I can tell stories of how incredibly bad, corrupt etc. some people are but I can also point to many, many great things we did and the incredible people (elected, salaried and volunteer) I worked with. But, even as I write this, I hesitate to identify as a former politician. The scarlet letter of being a politician (in many eyes) is indelible and interferes with my capacity to have a simple discussion about an issue even now. Politics is people, with all of our awfulness/goodness imbedded in every action. I have serious concerns that good people, those that many of us would trust to represent us, do not consider working in government because of how hopeless the situation appears. If political power is left to the egotist and the crazy as a result of an effective cynical appeal to our most base instincts we are lost as a nation. Hopefully there are more passionate, imaginative idealists that will step forward and ignore the common assumptions and help lead us out of this dark period.

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Another shadow of the GOP’s war on government. Gordon Strachan of Watergate infamy told young people to stay away from government. Ronald Reagan and all subsequent GOPhers have blamed government. What do we get? People like Will Kramer struggling to make incremental differences.

Thanks to all of you. For persevering, for making sacrifices, for doing what so many others couldn’t or wouldn’t.

(I do have to say that the unpaid internship business still irks me.)

Thanks, but I understood what he was trying to say and I’m sticking with my comment. I get that he is trying to say that there are people in government trying to do the right thing, but he comes off as focusing that definition too narrowly for my taste. He says “try to remember there are people there who are fighting for us” while focusing on those that are fighting against government corruption, against government “waste,” and against government “nonsense” and giving no comparable credit, or at least inadequate credit IMO, to those who are “fighting for us” by fighting for government programs such as those I mentioned.

As I said, I’m probably being overly sensitive, but if so it is because I have seen that us vs the government attitude used to undermine programs where the government was actually working for the people. Which I think is an important point to make. Yes those in congress working to make sure that the government is kept in line are important, but so are those working to see government used to improve the lives of the people and I feel his talk of congress as a cesspool outside of the groups he mentioned, who are admittedly doing their own good work, gives those Congressional staffers/government workers doing other equally important work the short end of the stick.

Edit: To further elaborate, what I’m saying is it is possible to praise the work of congressional oversight staffers, without laying the “people hate congress/congress is a cesspool” stuff on as thick as he did, which in my opinion feeds into the Republican “government is the problem” b.s. that this article seems to be wanting to argue against.

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huh!

A mid-level staffer can afford to be ethical. But elected politicians? Does anyone really think the big boys/girls are honest and upright and speak the holy writ truth? Really? Most have no more conviction than an over cooked noodle. My eldest niece worked for John Boehner for a while early in his career…before he was Speaker. I told her that members were short on honesty and none were or should be considered friends, whatever their party. She found that out and told me of married members hitting on her. She no longer works as a staffer.

Did anyone actually think that Congress is 100% bad? I’m willing to bet that it is even better than a tiny sliver and as psyker argued above, there is all sorts of good happening that never gets any credit from the populace but still happens or we wouldn’t even have what we do.

The Repubs work hard to perpetuate the storyline of, government is bad, as they grovel to dig their snouts into the trough.

What would be without government? The Repubs say that government exists basically for the military which is about as ass backwards of an idea as I can imagine. They’d rather be ruled by a militarized entity than by a representative one, wtf?
And, considering the all-time, most idiotic conspiracy that they are currently bathing in, Jade Helm 15, they don’t truthfully believe in the military either.

The GOP may never change for the better, so like it or not, the whole deal is on us, the fruitful and caring Dems.
May we elect with intelligence and govern with honor.

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But the sliver is smaller than I thought.