Understanding Congress
Make it a Goal for the New Year
In my correct opinion, Congress is the least understood branch of government (U.S.).
The other side of that coin is that , with a little elbow grease and some humility, one can begin to correct that defect.
Without a doubt, the number one problem one faces is a lack of awareness of their own ignorance about Congress. Fortunately, ignorance can be put front and center in a gentle way pretty quickly by a skilled practitioner.
Lots of people have opinions about Congress without understanding Congress. Even the Congress has trouble understanding itself.
Why?
Even to explain why requires at least a tiny attention span. Attention spans tend to contract when angry or sad.
The first thing you need to get a handle on is a realistic take on your own attention span, because you’re going to want to (and are going to, absent self-control) start tuning out as soon as I start talking about Congress (or as soon as anyone else does).
I could be saying true things that help you understand Congress, but if you tune out within 2.5 nanoseconds, and then blame anyone else besides your own tiny attention span when it’s pointed out, you’re destined to ignorance about Congress.
That’s because Congress is boring. It’s a boring topic. That’s the number one reason why probably most people with strong opinions on Congress don’t really understand what they think they’re mad at.
Hey, I’ve seen it first hand in the classroom, where I , as the professor teaching upper-level students a course called “Congress,” I see it in their eyes: how is this boring information going to help me ? is what their eyes say.
I’ve been there myself as a student. I assiduously avoided courses directly on just Congress for that very reason. I got some great material obliquely through other courses and reading about Congress, usually courses like “The Rise and Operations of the Administrative State” or “Executive-Congressional Relations,” but I fully admit, I was bored to tears directly confronting the topic of Congress, and I had a hard time understanding scholars who focused directly on the branch.
The Presidency by comparison was easy for me: there’s one guy at a time. There’s a point of focus: a personality, an individual with a story, and a document, the Constitution, Article 2, that creates and invests the president with a Constitutional role that perdures through time.
The Court, too, is relatively easy: there are fewer members, and there are authoritative documents, published and available, on hot topics of all sorts. The documents don’t change, all you have to do is read them. More keep coming all the time, sure, but that’s with everything. You read them, you keep track of the individuals as best you can.
But Congress ? Currently, there are how many members of Congress ? True or false, U.S. Senators are members of Congress ? What are their terms ? Where are they from ? What are the issues they tackle, and what and where are the authoritative documents—the most important documents—to read in order to understand the branch ?
How many regulations does the federal register publish in a given year ?
How about, in a given day ?
Who makes the regulations ? Which branch ?
How many federal agencies are there right now ? What is each agency’s budget ? What is each agency’s role ? What is the range of controversy about each agency’s role or budget? What is Congress’s power, authority, or responsibility (inclusive or) over each agency, and how is Congress doing on that /those specific tasks ?
I’m convinced that what we need is a boot camp, of sorts, for voters interested in Congress. We need a place, an excuse, perhaps, of hyper-focus on this to overcome our slouchiness we bring to the table.
Like military boot camp, it would need people to volunteer and it would need a budget. It’s the only way to level up fast. People typically don’t have the guidance or the self-discipline for such a leveling up. Otherwise, just like military bootcamp , civilians would arrive into the military already ready, and such a thing would be superfluous.
Shoot, we wouldn’t need great colleges, either. I tell my students, if you were perfectly good at motivating yourself , you’d be there already, you wouldn’t need me.
Let me suggest two things today.
I’m going to suggest you begin to subject yourself to some minor discomfort with the goal of understanding Congress.
It’s not a sexy goal. I get it. That’s why hardly anyone understands Congress. That wouldn’t be a big deal if it weren’t that it was actually a big friggin deal in real life. Not to mention, you have a bunch of voters with strong views on Congress who don’t understand Congress, and who don’t know that they don’t understand Congress, because they don’t have an attention span even for that last part.
Here’s the two things:
I’m going to introduce you to a great podcast from The American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. It’s called “Understanding Congress.” (Nice title).
I want you to work your way, steadily (it can be slow, go as slow as you need, but keep it moving—sitting still isn’t moving) through the whole thing, all of the episodes.
But start at this one: Episode 6: Is Congress Broken ?
Next, I want you to listen to this one all the way through, as slowly as you need, but keep it moving (take days if you have to , but keep going), and listen very carefully to everything that Congressman Dan Crenshaw says, because everything he says is worth repeating. I want you to notice what his theme is as he corrects Jonah Goldberg. It’s the December 5, 2023 episode called “Expectations v. Reality in Congress w/ Jonah Goldberg.”
It’s not Jonah that’s particularly insightful in this one, it’s Dan.
Luke, for Trp