The ambitions are vaulting, and the expectations are immense. A U.S. Senator. The United States! What could be better, the ultimate club of 100? Not just any peer group—the peer group.
Well, okay, maybe they don’t measure up to my standards. So I will run.
And then the time arrives. The news media follow my every move. My wife and children glow. My supporters are on their feet. A rush of adrenaline overcomes my sleepless nights. How can I sleep with so much at stake?? And I promise a better America, one that results from my wisdom and sacrifice.
Now in Washington—bedmate absent—sleepless nights are shadowed by disappointment with office and committee assignments. I can’t shake the image. I am now 97th or maybe 100th and when everybody lines up I am in the background.
But most painfully I have lost my courage somewhere. I am not going to make America better because I am now controlled, led by others and I am a first termer. I barely get in the game and then when I do its the last minutes. Legislation looks like an Amazon Prime catalog as our team leader says everything needs to be in one big bill and certainly no more than two.
Is redemption possible? Is there any chance of independence? Can I voice my take on things—or, if I do, will I lose the next election? Or my deep pocketed givers? Will I lose my membership? Will I become barely a footnote in the local paper much less the history books?
And then the guy who was at the top of the ballot says do what I say or you are history. What about my name? If I don’t yield, will he call me a derogatory name that will chase me through life? And if he doesn’t, will I look even worse? At best an afterthought?
But then I look around. I recall that my kids got shots and skipped diseases. What about RFK Jr’s attitude toward vaccines? Should he be our health care leader?
When I look at the Department of Defense I wonder how a guy whose success is framed by being glib on TV can lead the federal government’s largest department. And in many ways the most important one. This is not defense against the local scoundrels; this is facing our most determined enemies.
So what do I do? Do I measure up? Do I measure up to the expectations of my family? What about the imperative to tell the truth? The one I pledge each Sunday? Am I going to make a difference in Washington or has it already changed me?
The campaigns are over. The rallies a long since forgotten image passed around on Facebook. Truth be told this is now the time for me to stand-up, but damn, the truth is tough. What will the Party faithful say? Will I get invited to the White House? Already there are rumblings of a challenger.
Can I say “who cares”? There is a faint memory; maybe from high school history: the less you care about yourself the more you will care about others.
My choice—a seat with the best or are they the best? Is this the best I can do? Well maybe I can change them. Just then an invitation arrives, I’ve been asked to be a guest on a late night cable show. I text; “let my driver know.”
As afterthoughts: Maryland has a first term US Senator. As the world moves and shakes and challenges will she stick to the same old playbook? Or, will the people who really matter know her name?
Recall: At the end of the 118th Congress the final tally of Gallup was that the Congress was approved by 17%. Think about that, the most important representative body in the world approved by only 17% of its constituents. Will the 119th be any better?
Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al writes on themes from his book, Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books.
Mickey Terrone says
Hello Al. If the performance of 17% of the 435 congresspersons met the apporval of their voting constituencies in the 117th Congress, then something is absolutely wrong with our system of representation. I write this because since 1964, 85% (or higher) of incumbent congresspersons were reelected by those same disapproving voters.
So, where does that leave us? It leaves us with dark money driving the reelection campaign needs for most all 435 beggars, unless they are wealthy enough to finance their own campaigns. In the 2022 campaigns for US Congress, even where congressional districts are gerrymandered, incumbents raised an average of $2.1 million (or $2,800 per day during their 2-year terms). Freshmen campaigns averaged $2.9 million to win a seat for the first time. https://issueone.org/articles/the-congressional-fundraising-treadmill-2022-election/
While there are likely several self-serving reasons for laws that allow for dark money to be enacted by both houses of congress, the primary one would be a minority party seeking ways to overcome the lack of popular/public support for their programs and priorities. You are better versed than me with the historical rise of dark money, especially in federal elections, but until the public is better educated in the dangers to the integrity of the people serving them in both houses of congress and in the White House, the American people are being deceived into fooling ourselves. Far too many well-funded senators and congresspersons are more beholdent to their big money/dark money sources than their individual constituents.
John Fischer says
The confirmation hearings will provide the opportunity to see what senators, of both parties, are made of.
Thomas Shain says
That was an outstanding article by my neighborhood friend Al Sikes and unfortunately true, and it’s a path that new Senate electee’s will mostly experience. I am afraid for my family and millions of others to where our Wonderful United States is headed with the most corrupt, deceitful, hate filled President elect in our Country’s history. I am 85 years old, and I first voted for President Kennedy and have voted in every presidential election since. I suspect this election was probably my last and of the upmost important election in my lifetime, and I lost. I can truly state that I despise this person elected by majority of those that I think were in Denile and Ignorant about who they supported.
William Franklin Ferrell says
Wise words as always Alfred Sikes.