Politics Is Always Local for Somebody

Background

The Constitution's most distinctive feature is its "separation of powers" within the government—the creation of "checks and balances" among the legislative, executive, and judicial branch. It is a system designed to keep any one individual, or any one faction, from gaining excessive power. In this scheme of things, the array of forces would constantly compete with one another. Congress would have two chambers-the Senate and the House, each with members elected in a different way and different terms-each checking the other, since both would have to agree before any law could be passed. Though the president would have the power to veto Congressional acts, the special Electoral College process for electing the president would keep the chief executive somewhat independent of the Congress. Finally, the federal courts would be protected from both the executive and the legislature. True, they would be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate, but they would serve for life. Despite the separation of powers at the top, the framers from the several states feared their loss of control. Thus our national government became a federal system, where power was shared between the government in Washington and the several states.

Though the states feared excessive control of the faraway central government, what the framers feared even more was the tyranny of the people-the idea that a democratic government would soon lead to anarchy. They worried about what would happen if a national government did not defend itself against the unchecked exercise of popular will. Thus in this new constitutional government, only the members of the House of Representatives would be elected directly by the people. Senators (until the 17th Amendment), the president, federal judges-all were insulated in some way from the public. But in the view of James Madison, one of the writers of the Federalist Papers, the new system provided an even more fundamental protection against unrestrained popular power. The competition among the many factions within the federal system would keep any faction from becoming dominant. Each congressperson, exerting energy to see to it that local concerns and interests gained the attention of the national government would be unwilling to yield to a larger faction. Thus in a representative democracy, where the people and the states sent their "best" to speak for them in the national arena, hard-won compromises would eventually be struck and the republic would roll on.

I never did. Every time I ran I did a survey of my area, to see how it had changed. I remember when we counted 25,000 workers in the candy factories and how the number dwindled to nothing over the years. I remember counting 8,000 students at MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology], and learning there were 12,000 employees there. . . . With eighteen colleges and universities in my district, we had 200,000 students, and that meant education had to be a priority for me.

I tell them to pay attention to their own backyard and take care of their folks. Get home often and report to their constituents. Keep them informed and you will find they will like and respect you and allow you to be a "national" Congressman and vote for things that are good for the country but may not have a direct impact on your district. Of course, it's better if you can say you voted a certain way because it was "good for the economy of the area," but you don't always have that reason and report to their constituents.

1. Invite students to think about the legislative process and how it fits into other units they have studied about the federal government. Use the ideas from the background notes above or your own material to reacquaint them with the motivations of the founders in creating the legislative branch as they did. Invite them to visit www.house.gov, thomas.loc.gov and www.vote-smart.org to gather other details about the Congress. Before you begin the lesson try to find a map of your town's congressional district, and, if possible, a photograph of your congressperson.
2. Ask students to write down anything they know about their own representative. Share and compile the information on the board. Using the narrative as a starting point ask students to list ways in which their congressperson's district might differ in terms of geographical region, demographics, political make-up, and demographics.

After the discussion, explain to students that they are going to conduct some quick research to better "Know Your Congressman" Divide students into groups to accomplish the tasks described below. Explain to them that even though each group of students will be accomplishing different tasks, each group will make a poster as a visual organizer for an oral presentation.

1. Invite several students to find out more about their own representative by visiting http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/ to find your district's representative. Ask several students to prepare a presentation called "Know Your Congressman," using the information found. Be sure they include biographical information, current issues of concern, and constituent services.


2. Ask several other students to conduct further Web site research to determine the function and importance of any one of the committee assignments held by their representative. Make sure they find out how committees are organized, and how assignments are distributed in the Congress so they can share that as well. A good spot to visit for this purpose is: www.lcweb.loc.gov/global/legislative/housecomm.
The work of individual committees can be found at: www.house.gov/house/committee.


Ask those students to choose any two recent issues of concern to the committee(s). Remind students to check the congressman's Web site for the phone number of his/her local office, so print information can be obtained. Students will share their findings with the class.

3. Ask several other students to determine issues that are of interest and concern to their congressman and that are based on local constituent needs. After students study information found at their congressperson's site, ask them to explain those issues to the class, including why they affect their local community.

1. Ask six more groups to roam about the congressional Web sites to find two other congresspersons with constituencies that are very different from your own. Suppose you live in the heart of Montana. Have the students choose a congressman from a heavily populated city such as Chicago or New York, and perhaps another from a coastal state such as Washington. If you live in New York, consider a district in Nebraska, and perhaps another in a state like Texas, where issues center on resources such as oil. It may be that the students have other state connections—perhaps their grandparents live in other state, or they aspire to go to a college in a different state. Such connections will make the research less random. The idea is to help students understand how each congressperson brings local needs to the legislative process, and depending on geography and demographics, those local interests are not only different but also possibly competing.


2. After they have made their choices give each group one of the three tasks described under "Know Your Congressman," and ask them to proceed the same way.

1. After all students have completed their research and created a poster, schedule a presentation. At the end of the students' presentation the class should have accumulated an orderly set of information about three congressman with various constituent needs.
2. Ask the students to identify a bill that at least one congressman supports, and the other two most likely would not. As a culminating activity, have the class use their writing skills to make a case for the passage of one of the proposed bills, pointing out its strengths as if they were presenting it to the opposing congressmen. Remind students to keep in mind the constituencies of the two opposing congressmen in shaping their arguments.

Ask several students to read their arguments aloud. Afterwards, invite the whole class to use what they know about the three congressmen to strategize compromises that might result in the passage of the three bills. How could they find common ground among the three?

• Would political affiliations cause them to more quickly support a congressman with different local issues but similar philosophical beliefs?
• How might that overarching political view make them better understand the point of view of another congressman of the same party?
• Suppose the bill centers on an issue of economic opportunity, and though one constituency is an urban setting and another rural, both congressmen are interested in alleviating the effects of poverty. Could that provide the needed common ground?

 

Of the issues discussed, ask students to speculate which ones would have the least likelihood of being resolved by the pull and tug of compromise.

3. If at all possible, invite your congressperson to the school as a guest speaker. Organize a panel of questioners from your classroom to make the presentation more interactive, and to allow your students to use their new-found knowledge. If your representative cannot come, consider asking an aide from the congressperson's local office, and proceed the same way.

4. After this activity is complete, invite students to think about one of the issues that arose from the research and track it in the newspapers and on the television news to see how the debate about the problem is resolved.

Further, consider adopting the two congressional districts as your compare and contrast districts for the year. The students will become very familiar not only with their own congressional district but two others as well. It will give them a touch point against which to discuss current issues in Congress and understand the competing and compromising ebb and flow of the House.

About the Author
Rachel Thompson is a curriculum specialist and writer, and is currently the Educational Outreach Director at the George C. Marshall International Center. Mrs. Thompson recently completed a series of lessons for the Web site of the White House Historical Association, www.whitehousehistory.org, and for WETA's educational site, www.exploredc.org. She has written teacher's guides for many WETA video productions, and for educational projects of USA Today, Time-Life, and the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute. Before becoming an educational writer, Mrs. Thompson was for thirty-one years a U.S. History and American Government teacher. Her undergraduate degree is from Carson-Newman College in East Tennessee, and she received her Master's in Secondary Social Studies Curriculum at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.