Final Blog Post Entry

Over the course of the semester, these blog posts have been a useful way of observing Congress as we learned about its structural and historical development.  Not only did they 'encourage' us to sit down and read several articles regarding congressional activity, but by requiring us to comment on our classmate's posts we were able to see how other members of the class were interpreting the information being learned in class and applying it to their individual perceptions of Congress.  Commenting on other posts also gave us an opportunity to learn about issues that we didn't really pay much attention to, and even while writing our own posts we often had to read multiple articles on multiple issues/events to familiarize ourselves with the current situation in order to figure out what we were going to write about (or at least I know I did).  

"The Two Congresses" seemed to be the theme of most of our posts.  In my own posts, I tended to focus on the electoral focus of each action.  I seemed to tie most policy decisions of members of the House of Representatives to potential reactions from their constituencies, and potential electoral benefits.  For a few of them I even ignored the repercussions their decisions/actions had on policy and instead focused solely on their electoral goal; how they were only acting in such a way for the additional votes.  

Writing these blog posts was also a good way to keep us involved in what was happening within Congress.  Because we were, in a sense, forced to pay attention to what was happening, we were really able to follow the internal problems between the House Freedom Caucus and the more moderate House Republicans.  We also were able to see for ourselves and discuss in class the problems that arose around the election of a new Speaker after John Boehner announced his resignation.  

Though these posts allowed me to further develop my understanding of Congress, they didn't necessarily change the way I view the branch.  Before taking the class, I thought that a member of Congress' primary mission to gain reelection, and his/her main means of doing so was through his/her actions as a lawmaker.  Now that I've had the opportunity to study and really pay attention to what is happening in Congress, I still hold the same belief, but I understand the dynamics of the voter-politician relationship better, and even the relationship amongst politicians as they balance their obligations in Washington and their responsibility to maintain the support of their supporters.  The ways in which they balance these relationships is even interesting and entertaining to watch, and I do think that I will take my new understanding of the branch and new news-reading habits and continue to say up to date on Congress and its relationship with both other branches and the people.