Discouraged by Congress and the legislative process

It's been 951 days since Congress passed anything major. That's a little under three years. It seems that since reluctantly letting Obamacare limp through full of wounds and diseases waiting to fester, the Congress itself has heaved a huge, germ-filled sigh of relief and been too sick to get anything more done. It's a shame. And it's not really all that surprising.

Politics thrives on confrontation, and as we've gotten better about having those confrontations over the Internet, politicians are ever more exposed outside of Washington. When someone is watching your every move, it's a lot harder to make the deals and offer the favors to people that you need to in order to actually get anything done in Washington.

The Atlantic thinks there is reason to be optimistic. I don't. They say that Congress is looking at the best conditions in a long time for bipartisan deal making. Maybe. But I think the bigger issue is the public-ness of our legislative process now.

I'm no politician, but I can only assume that big things happen there because people make deals. I'm also relatively certain that what is promised, exchanged and said bears only a passing similarity to what politicians have long returned to their constituencies and explained.

In other words, you can walk the grey lines in Washington to make the deals and get things done, then come back to your state and frame what you did however you like. Say what you need to say to make a bill happen, then say whatever else you need to say to get reelected.

No matter what the conditions are in Congress, you can't do that anymore. You have to be saying the same thing from the first moment you are speaking in public to the last. You have to be consistent or else you'll get attacked and torn to shreds by the bloggers, who you can be sure are watching.

This one is.

Image courtesy of Thomas Hawk via flickr