And I thought I would taste disappointment

It's a separate world on Capitol Hill.  It's one of bustling congressman, naive interns, power-hungry legislative assistants and blue shirted mail workers all jaunting around in a series of underground passages and moderately fancy offices. And it tangles together to create a fascinating work environment for someone like me: an Idaho-grown-girl gone metro-intern.  Within the first four weeks of being here I have done everything from writing press releases to attending late night phone interviews with the congressman to filling up water for other employee's.  I came here for two main reasons: first, to have more opportunities in print even if it wasn't directly newsprint.  Second: to obtain a gateway internship that would open the way for other internships that are more related to my area. I'm on my way to accomplishing both of these; however I didn't realize how great of an opportunity this would be to form a realistic but improved opinion on the government.

 

Every day I sit at a desk filing e-mails, writing response letters, answering phone calls, listening to angry rants by disappointed constituents, reading letters about horrible situations that the congressman can do nothing about, etc. I truly enjoy this.  I enjoy it because I can make people happy by allowing them to ease their conscience and inform the congressman how he should be voting.  But the truth is, their mailings, rants, phone calls and sob stories rarely reach the congressman. Not just the one I work for, but any congressman.  So here it is. The truth it took me 19 years to realize. This is the big secret we have been shielded from ever since we first started learning about the government: your voice in federal government does very little. 'We the people' can write all the letters and make all the phone calls we wish, but in the end our congress will vote how they see it best.    

 

But I still believe in our democracy. Had I not been here when I discovered this it would have really bothered me. As it is I actually am very satisfied with how things work.  I believe that what 'we the people' don't realize is how much research goes on in these congressional offices.  Research is what legislative assistants and other staff are paid to do all day. They have an area of expertise, they know law, they know politics and they absorb everything in their area.  Then they report that to the congressman who is personally saturating in current events. These elected officials know the information.  They know pro's and con's. Then they vote according to what they think is best.  That should be of great comfort to We the People.

 

I am not suggesting this is the socialistic system demonstrated by George Orwell's Animal Farm.  Congress is not a hierarchy that claims to know better than those below them. And this is why.  This is still a democracy.  We still effect whether these congressmen and senators will be in office. And while our voice doesn't affect them much through mail or call, our vote certainly does. From what I have seen, they respect the opinions and intelligence of their constituents very much. No matter what their motives are, the public servants of government want to please their constituents. Because of this they are not going to purposefully vote against what the majority of their constituents wish if, on deeper research, they believe the bill in question will be beneficial.

 

But if they care about their constituents so much why don't they read and answer their own mail? Here are some statistics from the office I work in. 57,756 responses to concerns were sent out to constituents in 2009 alone. And it only keeps growing and growing.  That was 22,807 more than the year before because the office receives more mail every year. Frankly I think if We the People understood how long it takes to sort and then respond to all that mail we wouldn't want the congressman to be devoting his time to that. It would lead to quite the uninformed congressman. Not to mention he or she probably would not be present when the time came to vote.

 

Being here has made me realize that the government was not what I thought it was. It has a lot of flaws, but it also is a hard working place and good things are being done. As I continue with this internship I hope to further my understanding of the government as well as how you receive information from the government because it sure can be a tricky place and someday I want to write about it! Likewise, I will be willing to do whatever menial task they ask me because that is what I am here for and even in the menial tasks here I seem to learn interesting information.

 

And most of all, I will be sure to vote for a representative that I think will vote the way I would.