Friday, May 25, 2012

Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives
by Robert Draper

A retiring member of Congress wrote back in 1796, “Do not ask what good we do. It is not a fair question in these days of faction.” He was venting frustration over the stagnation of the House of Representatives due to partisan bickering. Neither Federalists nor their opposition would budge on a variety of issues, thus grinding the nation’s government (and her progress) to a halt.

Draper finds many parallels in that faraway legislative body and more recent congressional leaders. After dramatic gains in the 2010 election, a tidal wave of Tea Party activists descended on the 111th Congress armed with extreme ideas about governance. The ensuing Congressional year was nothing short of a tug-of-war match by politicians for the soul of our country. It was the last thing we needed during a time of great financial instability.

Among the main characters was Florida Republican Allen West and South Carolina Republican Jeff Duncan, two freshmen congressmen who came to Washington, D.C. to radically alter the course of our nation’s spending. However, the two congressmen quickly find their extreme stances to governing at odds with the decisions they were expected to make for their congressional districts.  Extreme conservative ideologies seemed less applicable when confronted by the needs of one’s home and community.

The 111th Congress also saw one of its members critically wounded as a result of the extreme partisan atmosphere. Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head during a public speaking event. And while she survived the tragedy, she was forced to step down from Congress due to lengthy recovery time.

For me, the most useful perspective in the book comes from twenty-nine-term Michigan Democrat John Dingell, who had watched other partisan Congressional bodies break up the slow progress of our nation’s government. He’d seen many legislators on both ends of the isle, people who negotiated in good faith with one another, knocked out of their positions because of partisan maneuvering. Dingell challenges us to question what is truly important to our nation, a winning political party, or democratically-achieved legislation for all.

Review graciously shared by Denny Russell