Peer Pressure in Pelosi Province : Why Congress-Critters Waffle
71From High School to Animal House
Many a concerned American has wondered--and continues to wonder--how on Earth an apparently sincere, motivated conservative candidate for high office in either the U. S. House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate can so often change so completely after being elected. It doesn't always happen; we're not saying that it does. But the percentages? Wa-ay off the charts. We all know it...we throw the bums out...and the new knights in shining armor are co-opted all too often and too swiftly by the Machinery That Is.
It might be a good thing to know just how and why this happens...you think? Sure, we constantly hear about the go-along-to-get-along environment in D.C. That is both a fact and a corrosive influence. But there has to be more.
Fortunately for all of you readers who are far too busy trying to actually make a living, I have the time to think about such things. I thought about this "mystery"...and the answer is simple.
The same people who lived peer pressure in high school are the Congress-critters now living in that virtual peer pressure soup called Washington, D.C.
They didn't graduate. They just slid along the path of least resistance, all the way into high office.
Team Players or Renegades
This hub was actually inspired by an email exchange with my Medicine Man friend, Red Elk. At one point in the exchange, I'd written:
As adults, we'd like to think people grow out of their high school susceptibility to peer pressure, but it's most certainly not so. If anything, it gets worse.
The individual who truly is an individual is rare indeed. Individuals such as you, or me, or Pam. We're likely to go in the opposite direction just because "the group" tried to tell us what to do. Or an individual like a fellow HubPages writer who goes by "50 Caliber" who lives UNDER 200 acres of sand behind the Superstition Mountains...and also behind a locked gate with sophisticated alarm sensors and a sign labeled "FIRE BASE DIAMONDBACK". Vietnam vet, or I'll eat my hat.
But most? Most don't have the fins to swim against the flow like any sensible salmon would do come spawning time.
Those salmon grow teeth to fight off other fish along the way and get to going; as we all know, the only fish that goes with the flow is a dead fish. (A saying that did not originate with Sarah Palin, but one of which she is justifiably fond.) Unfortunately, most cops, or doctors, or Congress-critters--are dead fish.
So are most teachers, or members of Kiwanis, or (of course) gang members...be the gang the Bloods or Crips or Hells Angels or the Sinaloa drug cartel.
When you not only think about things (rather than merely memorize the party line of the moment), it's pretty easy to find yourself labeled as a renegade. Clearly, walking the razor's edge between being an essential team player (ask any combat-hardened U.S. Marine about that one) and becoming a formless blob of Pelosi Puppet Putty can be a bit of a fine art...but when it comes to our elected representatives, possessing a steel spine trumps charm and compromise every time.
Fortunately, we have Michelle Bachmann standing strong in the House and Jim DeMint doing likewise in the Senate. Now for the Presidency--where We the People need Sarah Palin to land with "all four feet" (as her Dad would put it) in 2012.
Remember in November 2012.
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Thanks--but even were I so inclined, there's no way. I've got way too much baggage, too many fat targets for political enemies to hit. For example: Six divorces, two bankruptcies, one home foreclosure.
Not that I'd care what sort of slime was slung--I surely would not--but the voters would.
However, that's no reason for lament, and there are countless other equally vital functions available for consideration. What I do now, for example. An ear to the ground in the field. Bodyguard (although my wife has dibs on that function for the duration). Speech scanner. Backup moose hunter in a pinch. You name it.
Just not V.P.!
I as a voter would not care one whit about everything you just said, lol...
Integrity is more important to me than history...
I am forever your fan. I hope you will get to run for office some day. You will do good. You are able to handle force.
Ghost, I'm cool with that. Soon the feds will be looking for me, Ha! imagine that! Good write, we haven't had much to pick from on the ballot as of late, I don't see it getting better either, so 'til next dust devil, or 200 pound tumble weed in the grill at 50 mph, later 50
Great read and very true. Those who succumbed to peer pressure and tried to fit in and be popular, turned into adults with the minds of teenagers. I meet people like this all the time. They are still 50 year old cheerleaders. Well, this certainly explains a lot about the people in Washington. They are trying to be popular with a certain crowd. Most often the crowd does not include the American people. Voted up and awesome!
MSorensson: I've got no interest in running for office. Have worked in offices and don't like 'em! Besides that, though, I've got too much baggage for any "heavy" political office. If you think the blamestream media has fun with Sarah Palin, consider (just for a few examples) my six divorces, two bankruptcies, and one foreclosure!
50 Caliber: Thanks.
Pop: 50 year old cheerleaders...yeah, I like that. Thanks for the up and awesome.
The persuasive power of peer pressure does not work on everybody. Thats why cool-aid became so popular. Advice for anyone going to DC is "Don't drink the cool-aid". I may need to write a Hub about how often I heard that advice from my parents and grandparents as a kid, both in Chicago and in DC.
No, it doesn't work on everybody. If it did, we'd never have had a Revolution, let alone the United States of America as we know it today.
About the Kool-Aid, though: Is that a Chicago/D.C. thing, or what? 'Cause growing up in Montana, we drank a LOT of Kool-Aid. Probably still would, if we could just find the original, add-your-own-sugar, GREEN stuff. Which seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird and/or Pelosi's House Speakership.
Oh. Wait. Those two are the same thing. Sorry about the redundancy.
Mom was native DC. Grandparents were long term DC residents, so I always carreid the impression it was a DC thing. 40 years later I wonder if they were not serious about the warning. I asked once, and got one of the scariest stories of my childhood, which quickly got filed and forgotten in memory as a 'scare em say boo' story of the sort told around late-night campfires. The story essentially ran as 'once you drink the cool-aid, your mind belongs to them'. I associate with Chicago only because it was the first place I heard it, which I think will make a fair to middling Hub story, someday.
Definitely would! Make a Hub story, that is. Maybe a cut above fair to middling, at that.
I just recently started reading J.F.K's novel 'Profiles in Courage,' and it's very interesting to get a late politican's viewpoint on the matter of compromise. Not that I agree with some of his opinions, but he tries to explain how and why members of Congress compromise on matters and seem to fall under the peer pressure. I'm looking forward to finishing the late President's novel.
Reckon maybe I should read that one. From the time it came out, the title threw me off--figured it was just stories about people who showed they had some guts. Didn't realize it was a novel!
msorensson Level 3 Commenter 17 months ago
As always I enjoy reading your hubs. I tend to agree with you that peer pressure cannot be outgrown so easily.
We have to keep reminding ourselves that the moment they get elected, they have to think of the next election. This is sad but also truth.
Oh.. I wish you were running as Sarah Palin's VP...now that will be awesome. She could not find a more loyal and more honest man.