They are the members of the United States Congress, the 535 (or so) men and women who represent our Nation. They are today\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might remember it from eighth grade lunch line. A kid comes by and, as my basketball friends would say, \u201cthrows an elbow\u201d. Maybe it\u2019s just a middle school act of \u201csocialization\u201d; \u201cI hit the people I like.\u201d Or maybe it\u2019s a more modern sign of \u201cbullying\u201d, I can hit you, and you can\u2019t do a damn thing about it. It wasn\u2019t appropriate in the lunch line back in my time, nor now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the high school, those little altercations were the \u201cmeat\u201d of my disciplinary job as Dean of Students. When I first started, I had to learn a whole new phrase; \u201cBounce or be Bounced\u201d. It meant run away, or I\u2019ll make you run away. It was often followed by the ultimate gesture of a willingness to fight; \u201cstripping for battle\u201d. Off came the jackets and jewelry, then the shirts \u2013 bare-chested boys getting ready to \u201cspill blood\u201d. It looked dramatic, but the \u201cceremonies\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It always looked stupid on school cameras. I actually had a little more respect for the kids who just \u201cwent at it\u201d, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And one other thing changed from the time I was in elementary school, the \u201cnew kid\u201d who\u00a0\u00a0sometimes was a fighter.\u00a0\u00a0Back then, after the fight, there was a bond \u201csealed in blood\u201d with the opponent.\u00a0\u00a0Often as not, the fight began a friendship.\u00a0\u00a0But in more recent times, fights just led to revenge, and escalating conflict.\u00a0\u00a0The old, \u201cGo duke it out behind school (or under the water tower, or across the street) and get it over with,\u201d no longer worked.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cDuke it out\u201d, and the loser comes back with friends, and the winner needs more friends, and things just escalate out of control.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m not sure fighting was ever a good answer, but it\u2019s certainly not one today, especially with social media broadcasting every punch, with blow-by-blow commentary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m sixty-seven years old, and I can count the number of actual fights I\u2019ve had as an adult (not acting as the referee in a kid fight) on less than one hand. It\u2019s not how adults behave. Of course, I was in the right each time!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Congressman from Bakersfield, California, former Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy \u201cthrew an elbow\u201d 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 \u201cif I hit him, he\u2019d know it\u201d middle school bravado went on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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,\u00a0\u00a0a \u201cSmurf\u201d in the middle of a hearing.\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t know if \u201cSmurf\u201d is anti-Semitic, but at least Comer didn\u2019t call him a \u201cmouse\u201d (remember \u201cAn American Tail\u201d, Fievel Mousekowitz, \u201cThere are no cats in America and the streets are lined with cheese!!\u201d).\u00a0\u00a0But I bet that\u2019s where Comer was headed.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0And the Senator from Tennessee, Markwayne Mullin, \u201ccalled out\u201d the President of the Teamsters\u2019 Union, Sean O\u2019Brien of Massachusetts, doing the Tennessee version of \u201cBounce or be Bounced\u201d in an open hearing.\u00a0\u00a0Mullin even stood up and started to remove his jewelry.\u00a0\u00a0O\u2019Brien, (he\u2019s a Teamster for heaven\u2019s sake) stood up, quite open to the challenge.\u00a0\u00a0It was Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders who managed to settle things down.\u00a0\u00a0No fighting in front of \u201cgrandpa,\u201d I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What\u2019s wrong with Congress? Are they like the fifth grade class that went too long before \u201crecess\u201d? Is the pressure of keeping the government open (and solving that problem before Thanksgiving \u201cbreak\u201d) too much? Or is this just another symptom of the polarization of American politics. Maybe this Congress doesn\u2019t have to work together to find solutions. It\u2019s easier to \u201cBounce or be Bounced\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"