If you’ve followed Congress at all recently, and who hasn’t given the freak show that it is recently, then like most Americans, you probably hold a pretty low view of the legislative institution. Now if you’ve had some interaction with your own member of Congress, you probably view that person in a better light. This is the paradox of American federal politics: we hate “Congress,” but love our own Representative. It’s one reason, albeit a small one, that there is such little turnover in the House. Throw the bums out, we say, but let us keep our own.
With the rancorous debate over the extension of the payroll tax cut over the days leading up to Christmas, Congress and this great cognitive divide was on my mind, including when I read about Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George not so subtly comparing gay rights advocates to the Ku Klux Klan.
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