I’ve always prided myself on
someone that is relatively in the know when it comes to current events and the
state of the world. Yet, the reality is, we no longer live in a day and age in
which people commonly read the paper or watch the news. As much as I try to
stay up to date on current events I did so in ways that were convenient for a
college student. Like most people of my generation I get my news through
Twitter, Facebook, and an occasional browse of the New York Times home page. I
really thought I was doing enough to keep myself up to date, even as a
Political Science student. However, these blog posts were a long overdue
awakening. I might have been up to date on the headline political stories that
made it to my newsfeed on Facebook but I certainly wasn’t aware of the
inter-workings and day-to-day work happening at the core of our government,
Congress. As this semester wraps up, I find myself frequently scrolling through
Roll Call even after we’ve finished the blog posts. I’ve gotten in the habit of
reading the New York Times a few times a week and paying special attention to
the Politics section. Our weekly blog posts have really forced me to do so and
pushed me to a point where I consciously think to read up on what is happening
in Congress.
For obvious reasons, my newfound
dedication to current events is a good thing. But on a deeper level, the blog
posts and following what was happening in Congress really allowed me to
conceptualize what we learning in class. During this course we have really
focused on how there are Two Congresses and what exactly that means. The
members of Congress have two jobs; they must serve their constituents as
representatives and also serve the nation as lawmakers. In many ways these are
competing interests and we learned about many scholars that have attempted to
make sense of these competing jobs and how they have created the Congress we
have today. I know personally, I struggled to comprehend things like the Congressional
Party Government Theory or the important roles of fundraising. However, the
blog really helped me to grasp these concepts better, both by writing my own
posts and reading my classmates’ post.
Behind the concept of the Two
Congresses is the idea that all members of Congress share a single goal,
re-election. I used this idea throughout many of my blog posts to help me
rationalize and understand the behavior of members of Congress. One thing I
really focused on in my blog posts is the influence of interests groups. I
wrote two blog posts on EMILY’s List and the candidates they chose to endorse.
When I looked at the PACs endorsement of Kathleen Matthews and Ann Kirkpatrick
I was seeking to understand why these types of endorsements are so important to
people seeking office for the first time. I cam to the conclusion that it’s
because PACs like EMILY’s List offer credibility and access to fundraising for
new, unknown political hopefuls. This realization helped me to better
understand the goal of re-election in Congress. Incumbents don’t need these
endorsements as much because re-election is their primary goal. When
re-election becomes a primary goal, fundraising is one of the most important
things a member can do. The members that seek re-election spend everyday of
their term fundraising and pushing legislation that aligns with large donors. Those
that have never held political office don’t have the same resources, which is
why they heavily rely on the support of interested groups to be elected.
I also examined interest groups in
regard to my own representative, John Larson. My research of John Larson and
the interests groups that support him also gave me a lot of insight into the
way the Two Congresses function with one another. I found that Larson wasn’t a
huge fundraiser and that actually his fundraising decreased in later years in
office. Clearly, for Larson, in a small district like the 1st
Congressional District of Connecticut, after a number of years in office name
recognition goes a long way towards re-election. Rather than spend a lot of
time fundraising, Larson spent time with constituents and at local events,
which is one of the ways Feno argued that members seek re-election. When I
looked into the interest groups that supported Larson I found that the industry
that supported him the most was the insurance industry, which makes sense since
Hartford is the insurance capitol of the world. I also found that the majority
of bills Larson sponsored involved taxes, which aligns with the interest groups
supporting him and his constituents. This was a helpful case study that allowed
me to better understand how the Two Congresses play a role in the day-to-day
responsibilities of Congress. Because of the Two Congresses, Larson shaped his
behaviors in a way that mad him likely to be re-elected. He fulfilled is role
as a representative while also assuring he could continue to make laws by align
in with the interests groups that support him.
In general, it is never enough to
simply learn from a test book. Had it not been for the blog assignment and our
discussions of current events I would not have the understanding of Congress
and how members seek re-election that I know have. My understanding of how
Congress works has not only expanded but also changed. I know recognize why our
Congress sometimes fails to be productive, why incumbency is so high, and much
more. The Two Congresses is a theory that is helpful in explaining all the
behavior of the members of Congress, something our class blog made very
evident.
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