The government shutdown has finally come to an end; for now
that is. Congress passed a bill to keep the government running through January
15th of 2014 and lift the debt ceiling through February 7th
(CBS News, 2013). Throughout this whole process, Dent has been making national
news. While some has been good and other has been bad, Dent hasn’t changed his
position on the government shutdown. He stated from the start that he would not
vote on any bill to shut down the government (CNN, 2013). Even though he voted
on the original funding bill involving the defunding of Obamacare, that seemed
to be more of a symbolic move. When the actual vote that caused the government
shutdown occurred, Dent strongly voted against it. As the shutdown progressed,
Dent became more and more active in trying to get other members of his party to
vote on a clean bill to re-open the government. This is when other members of
his own party started calling him a hypocrite or “a republican only in name.”
In a few of my earlier posts, I mentioned the alleged hypocrisy of Dent by his
own party. But in the midst of what has occurred in the government in the past
few days, I think that Dent came out as one of the Congressmen on top. In the
end, the House voted on a bill as close to clean as it could get with a 285-144
vote (CBS News, 2013). Being that the House Republicans have the majority
(232-200), this means that even if all the democrats voted for the bill, at
least a total of 85 Republicans would have had to give in and sign the bill (Office
of the Clerk, 2013). This number may not be exact, but it gives you a glimpse
of the fact that more republicans other than Dent and the few others that spoke
out ended up compromising and voting on this semi-clean bill. Therefore, this
makes it look like Dent knew what he was talking about all along. He’s been
saying this entire time that the Republicans needs to compromise and sign a
bill to keep the government going, but instead of listening right away many
Republicans gave Charlie a lot of crap. Many of those same Republicans could
have been the ones who ended up voting for that clean bill. As one of Charlie’s
constituents myself, I think it makes Charlie look extremely educated and
allows me to put more trust in him as my representative.
As Richard Fenno said in his book The
American Congress Reader, Dent was conducting in what is referred to as
“Home Style” (Fenno, 1977). Fenno claims that representatives are always
conducting 2 activities: presentation of self and explaining Washington
activity (Fenno, 1977). Dent very obviously conducted in both of these activities
throughout the past few weeks. He took to national news to explain to not just
his own constituents, but the nation as a whole, what was going on in Congress
in the midst of the government shut down (CNN, 2013). Even though his
interviews and statements may have been biased to his opinion, they still gave
the American people and especially his constituents, who know him well, an idea
of what he and the rest of the Congressmen are doing in Washington. But most
importantly, Dent has definitely been conducting in the action Fenno refers to
as “presentation of one self” (Fenno, 1977). This action thoroughly involves
getting constituents to know and like you, but most importantly it’s about getting
constituents to trust you (Fenno, 1977). It is fairly easy getting people to
like you and know your name by just making appearances and telling people what
they like to hear. But actually trusting representatives is a much harder task,
especially when 82.5 percent of Americans disapprove of Congress (Real Clear
Politics, 2013) and 47% of Americans prefer dog poop over Congress (The Raw
Story, 2013). Although not an easy task, it seems that situations like the
government shutdown can make or break people’s trust of their representatives.
For Charlie, it would seem to me that trust from his constituents should
increase. Charlie stuck with his view and it ended up being the one that
Congress agreed on in the end. He had been saying from the start that Republicans
needed to compromise and pass the clean bill, and through all the smack he went
through, he ended up being right all along. This could prove very good for all
the problems it seemed Charlie could face in 2014. One of the main issues was
that after Charlie deviated from his party, the Republicans could fund another
candidate to run against him in the primary. But this seems like a long shot
now, since Charlie’s party did end up compromising. He pleased his constituents
and his party doesn’t seem too angry anymore, therefore Dent must be getting
pretty good at this dual nature of politics thing. And in the process, he
basically came a celebrity!!!!!
For a really interesting interview with Dent, click the link
below!
References:
Richard F. Fenno, Jr. 1977. “U.S. House Members in their
Constituencies: An Exploration” American
Political Science Review 71: 883-917.
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