Transcript
THOMAS MANN: It has been, of course, the subject of partisan attacks, of spin, of some data, and I think a fair amount of misinterpretation of what has actually gone on.
It is important to get a reasonable baseline to begin with. How should we judge this Congress? Should it be compared with the first 7 months pre-August recess activity of the last Congress, the 109th that was controlled by the Republicans? Since that was a period of unified party government, should we look back on the last time we had a change in party control of the Congress that also operated under divided party government, and that of course would be the 104th Congress following the 1994 elections? We could also look historically at the last two terms of any two-term president and see the extent to which this has or has not been a time of peace, of harmony, of conflict, of productivity, of gridlock. If we do that, we will discover that presidents in general in their last 2 years take refuge in foreign policy which may be a good indicator of what is to come this year. We might also look at the pre-election promises that Democrats made and hold them to their promises and see how well they have been able to deliver.
If we use public opinion as an indicator, this would be an awfully short briefing. As you know, according to Gallup, in mid-August tied its low point as far as approval ratings are concerned at 18 percent. It is not impressive. It is not encouraging. To be sure, most of that is explained by the sour attitude Americans have toward public life and the direction of the country more broadly. Indicators of all branches of government and prominent individuals within it are really quite low. The war in Iraq, economic uncertainty, continuing signs of corruption and scandal I think have all worked to bring Congress's rating down. But so too I think has been the frustration among antiwar activists over the failure of Congress to alter Iraqi policy in the near term. That has certainly been a piece of it. But so too has been the kind of partisan battles that have continued to characterize policymaking in Washington.
Americans have never internalized the Madisonian system. That is to say, James Madison intended there to be disagreement. He expected there to be disagreement in a large heterogeneous society. The trick was for representatives to come to Washington reflecting those disparate views and to engage in real debate and deliberation to try to resolve them. That entails some heated battles, rhetorical battles. Americans often times think they actually all agree amongst themselves and it is those pernicious politicians in Washington who are looking for fights when the basis for them does not exist in public opinion. Nonetheless, I think that explains the low ratings of Congress.
. . .In this report we basically look at three categories of factors, legislative activity, productivity, what kind of achievements have been realized, and process, how is the Congress, House and Senate, being run. Is there any sign of diminished partisanship, of increased civility, of fairness, of regular order, of genuine debates occurring between the parties, between the branches? The Broken Branch documented the utter collapse of regular order in the Congress in recent years; has that begun to turn around?
View Full Transcript »