A Rant on Congressional Ego...

I've had a thought I've been ruminating on for a while. Well, actually that might be too strong of a word. I haven't been fixated on it. I've thought about enough to have it register as a consistent thought, but not examined it enough to come to any conclusions.

At any rate, I've had the opportunity to meet a number of public officials in my life, in addition to the many many many hours I've watched the behavior of members of Congress on C-Span and the like.

From these experiences, I've come to loathe the better-than-thou attitude of so many in Congress, particularly in the Senate.

And it brought to mind the following questions:

Why is it that there seems to be some unstated requirement for the average citizen to treat all Congressmen and --especially-- Senators with such reverence and respect?

and

Why is it that we are to treat members of Congress as if they are the American elite; so much better than all of us?

Now, I fully believe that we should accord all people with a general level of respect for their status as a person. But anyone who has ever met a Senator, in particular, knows that they walk around like they're wearing God's magical sweater vest and that we must all bow down to their superiority. And this is true regardless of where they are. It's not hard to picture any given Senator screaming "I'm a United States Senator, by God!" and cutting to the front of the line at a corn dog stand, for example.

As I see it, under our system as a Democratic Republic, I (and my fellow citizens) are the ultimate bosses. Yet, I (and my fellow citizens) grant power to a select number of individuals to wield authority in my name. From this, I think I am well placed to be specially respectful for the institutions of the government and the specific offices that I have allowed to exert influence over me.

So who would this be? Obviously the people I immediately choose to fill those offices, namely my House Representative and my two Senators. Additionally (through causal chain), I am influencing the selection of Leadership. Assuming that there are 5 primary leadership positions in the Senate and 9 primary leadership positions in the House, this leads to at most 17 figures in Congress who, based on my model, are owed a special level of respect by me (depending on who your Senator is, this number can vary).

So why exactly should I bow down to the other 518 members of Congress and pretend that they are on some pedestal above me? What exactly is it that the Junior Senator from, say Rhode Island (which is Lincoln Chafee, should you care), or the senior Senator from Massachusetts (Ted Kennedy) has done that I am to give him special deference?

They don't wield authority over me precisely because I haven't ever granted them permission to do so (i.e. through a result of my vote). And logically, if they aren't wielding authority over me, then how exactly are they any different from the average citizen I might meet on any given street? Or perhaps more easily comparable, am I as a citizen of Oregon required, as a sign of deference, to give my place in line at that corn-dog stand to the governor of Delaware? Or Florida? Or Iowa? Or California? Of course not, and most people wouldn't think to do so. So why are those 518 members of Congress noted above any different?

They are members or Chairmen of Committees, you say? Indeed, it's true that Committees do exert some power in Congress. But while some learned political scholars might disagree, I don't really give a hoot about Committees because the power they wield comes as a result of a perversion of our system.

Committees were established to facilitate the overall action of the entire body of the Congress. Committees are to act as guides in expediting the process of legislative creation. They were NOT created to be arbitrative bodies in a general sense. That the leadership in Congress is given the ability to break Committee power at any time it chooses is indicative of the role that Committees were supposed to play. (This is why it's so outrageous when the Judiciary Committee of the Senate, for example, attempts to stifle the ability of the entire Senate to vote on Court nominees.)

From this, it should be apparent that any influence wielded by those 518 members of Congress I mentioned is from the aggregate power of Congress. To this end, because my model bases given respect on the amount of authority exerted, I am willing to grant those 518 individuals 1/535th extra amount of respect. I think that my addressing them as "Senator" or "Representative" should cover it.

But I'll be damned if I let them get a corn-dog before me.