My girlfriend has made me watch many romantic comedies in our time together. I begrudgingly follow a similar allegory with different representatives through each incarnation. Some I even record and watch later repeatedly with a healthy serving of ice cream (for, you know, research). A mainstay in many of these movies, is the initial conflict of a co-dependent relationship. Both members of the doomed couple show obvious signs of no longer liking the other but have developed an unhealthy "need" of each other. Some need structure; some need physical touch; and probably none of us like being alone. So why am I pulling us in around a collective bowl of popcorn, ice cream, and tissues?
Recently citizens have not only lost faith in, but grown an increasing disdain for, their government, especially at the federal level. A Newsweek article in September 2017 showed that Congressional approval rating had hit a 16% grade that would have been the equivalent of filling out the same letter every question on a six option multiple choice test. You might think that could be exclusively a Republican problem, as they controlled both houses of Congress, but the Democrats fared approximately the same with an approval rating of 14%. As if to further buttress the hatred of the status quo, the electorate voted Donald Trump, President, often citing his status as "an outsider" as a main determinant for approval. Sprung anew are the talks of term limits for Congressmen as well. All these points would drive one to conjecture that people are sick of what's going on Washington, D.C.
Some possible conclusions come out of this. One is that just because people aren't happy with Congress's job as a whole, doesn't mean they aren't happy with their personal representative. Despite the overwhelming disapproval rates, over the last three elections the re-election rate in the House were 90-97%; and the Senate rates were 82-93%. This disconnect speaks to either or both of two mindsets:
A deep, national, political schism causing voters to believe "it's not my rep's fault. It's theirs."
and/or
A co-dependent relationship formed between the voters and their representatives.
Just like the couples who can't seem to quit each other in my (girlfriend's) favorite romantic comedies, the two have developed a borderline abusive need for each other that satisfies no one. Voters are somehow driven by the familiarity, fear of the unknown, or maybe just the sound of the word "incumbent." To borrow from one of the great pop culture orators of our time: they "might have experience, but its bad experience."
Yet suddenly as an individualist, foul-mouthed loose cannon enters the white house . . . as Congress's approval ratings dip into the equivalent of throwing darts at an SAT scantron . . . as widespread populace begins to dip its toe into decentralized currency (yes bitcoin) . . . suddenly then the Government shuts down, and many find themselves lost without them. A hulking machine so large, so resource hungry, that it can't continue even another day without a 535 person debate on how to pay its bills for the next thirty days. Yet none of the members of Congress need fear a delay in monetary compensation despite having so grossly failed in their duly appointed task.
It was in the madness of Twitter that I found a pearl of wisdom that illuminated the disconnect for me. In a reference to President Trump's disparaging remarks about Haiti, et al., someone mentioned that the governments of those countries were still running while America's was not, making America more of the s---hole. But America is still running. Things are working, and people are working very well for most of the country because America is not its federal government. So now people need to decide whether they think the Government makes America or its people do, whether Government makes the people work or its Government works for the people.