Final Blog Post

This semester has made tremendous progress in increasing my interest and active seeking of information about politics. Specifically, these blog posts as well as the class simulation have given me a greater appreciation for the ideal of Congress as well as understanding the true processes and inner workings of the congressional body. Admittedly, congress along with other aspects of politics have never been particular interests in the past with me because I have always found that people would rather argue and yell without an end in sight instead of listening and discussing issues and making progress.
Taking this class and learning so much about the Two Congresses and the way their processes work has allowed me to understand the process better and see it from a different point of view. The work and the goals of Congress are so intricate and so difficult to make headway on, that it is very often almost impossible to reach a consensus and solve issues in ways that could satisfy all involved parties. Goals such as constituency satisfaction and community improvement drive many politicians who only desire to make the country better for their state and its people. There are unfortunately also many politicians who are driven by less noble, but understandable goals like re-election. These politicians make each of their political, public, and private moves all contribute towards their efforts for the upcoming election. One could argue that working for the primary purpose of getting re-elected is selfish or greedy but it makes sense. It may not be as helpful or as compassionate as working for your constituents but it is a realistic goal to acquire higher social/economic class, make social changes they or like minded individuals want, or to gain more power. The goals and motivations of the two Congresses have been great insights as to how I look at politicians.
Learning about Congress has been great, but I think I have gotten the most out of reading and listening to my classmates throughout the semester. Through their point of views and their enthusiasm and hard work I was able to think more critically as well as more personally about the types of issues and the politicians that we addressed in the course. A good example of this would be the simulation and the efforts from all the students to make progress for their side. The enthusiasm and determination given off by my classmates gave me great energy to do my best and to try and help to make changes in our mock Congress. I especially enjoyed trying to convince our committees to accept or support different bills and pieces of legislation that we were all proposing. This task really put us in our senator's shoes and forced us to not only research our bills, but also care about them and fight for their approval. We looked at each issue as if we had our own constituents, as if our hometowns really needed the bills we were promoting (although some we knew we did not agree with and some we even had to push when we completely hated the idea) and we were there best shot at progress. I am upset that I was not able to get my Partnerships Act passed, but I could not find a compromise on cost that would have been found acceptable by some of my colleagues.
I believe that as a more visual and hands on learner, this class has been great in keeping my interest toward Congress up. I have enjoyed learning about the Two Congresses and I have a newly reinvigorated enthusiasm to keep up with the current local, national, as well as international news and the ways that our government addresses them. It has been a long semester with a lot of information, but through these blog posts and the hands on learning techniques like the simulation, I am confident that I was able to learn a lot about Congress and our country.