They are the members of the United States Congress, the 535 (or so) men and women who represent our Nation. They are today’s United States Constitution, Article I, alive: the first and most important branch of the government. And, some, are acting like the idiots they really are.
School Boy Rules
You might remember it from eighth grade lunch line. A kid comes by and, as my basketball friends would say, “throws an elbow”. Maybe it’s just a middle school act of “socialization”; “I hit the people I like.” Or maybe it’s a more modern sign of “bullying”, I can hit you, and you can’t do a damn thing about it. It wasn’t appropriate in the lunch line back in my time, nor now.
In the high school, those little altercations were the “meat” of my disciplinary job as Dean of Students. When I first started, I had to learn a whole new phrase; “Bounce or be Bounced”. It meant run away, or I’ll make you run away. It was often followed by the ultimate gesture of a willingness to fight; “stripping for battle”. Off came the jackets and jewelry, then the shirts – bare-chested boys getting ready to “spill blood”. It looked dramatic, but the “ceremonies” were usually a stalling tactic. Maybe one of the combatants would back down, or maybe the Dean of Students would show up to break things up before they actually began.
It always looked stupid on school cameras. I actually had a little more respect for the kids who just “went at it”, without all of the rooster crowing or deer stomping and snorting that preceded altercation. Get to business and pay the price; first in blows, then in suspensions. There was honesty in that, even if it was still dumb.
Behind the School
And one other thing changed from the time I was in elementary school, the “new kid” who sometimes was a fighter. Back then, after the fight, there was a bond “sealed in blood” with the opponent. Often as not, the fight began a friendship. But in more recent times, fights just led to revenge, and escalating conflict. The old, “Go duke it out behind school (or under the water tower, or across the street) and get it over with,” no longer worked. “Duke it out”, and the loser comes back with friends, and the winner needs more friends, and things just escalate out of control. I’m not sure fighting was ever a good answer, but it’s certainly not one today, especially with social media broadcasting every punch, with blow-by-blow commentary.
I’m sixty-seven years old, and I can count the number of actual fights I’ve had as an adult (not acting as the referee in a kid fight) on less than one hand. It’s not how adults behave. Of course, I was in the right each time!!
Tuesday’s Nonsense
The Congressman from Bakersfield, California, former Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy “threw an elbow” Tuesday. He elbowed Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee as Burchett was giving an interview to a shocked National Public Radio reporter. Burchett called McCarthy out, and a whole bunch of “if I hit him, he’d know it” middle school bravado went on.
The Congressman from Kentucky, James Comer, Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, called the diminutive Democratic Congressman Jared Moskowitz of Florida, a major supporter of Israel, a “Smurf” in the middle of a hearing. I don’t know if “Smurf” is anti-Semitic, but at least Comer didn’t call him a “mouse” (remember “An American Tail”, Fievel Mousekowitz, “There are no cats in America and the streets are lined with cheese!!”). But I bet that’s where Comer was headed.
Bounce or Be Bounced
And the Senator from Tennessee, Markwayne Mullin, “called out” the President of the Teamsters’ Union, Sean O’Brien of Massachusetts, doing the Tennessee version of “Bounce or be Bounced” in an open hearing. Mullin even stood up and started to remove his jewelry. O’Brien, (he’s a Teamster for heaven’s sake) stood up, quite open to the challenge. It was Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders who managed to settle things down. No fighting in front of “grandpa,” I guess.
What’s wrong with Congress? Are they like the fifth grade class that went too long before “recess”? Is the pressure of keeping the government open (and solving that problem before Thanksgiving “break”) too much? Or is this just another symptom of the polarization of American politics. Maybe this Congress doesn’t have to work together to find solutions. It’s easier to “Bounce or be Bounced”.
