... What Good We Do

Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives
by Robert Draper

In 1796, a retiring member of Congress wrote to his colleague, “Do not ask what good we do. It is not a fair question in these days of faction.” He was venting frustration over stagnation of the House of Representatives due to partisan bickering. Neither the Federalists nor their opposition would budge on a variety of important issues, thus grinding our nation’s government (and her progress) to a halt.

In that faraway legislative body, Robert Draper finds many parallels to more recent congressional leaders. After dramatic gains in the 2010 elections, a tidal wave of Tea Party activists descended on the 111th Congress armed with extreme ideas about governance. The ensuing Congressional year was nothing short of a tug-of-war match by politicians for the soul of our country, probably the last thing we needed during a time of financial instability. 

Draper embedded himself with the newly elected leaders, many of them entering political office for the first time, to watch the struggle unfold. He interviewed many of the representatives of the 111th Congress and sat in on their legislative sessions. Two congressmen of particular interest were Florida Republican Allen West and South Carolina Republican Jeff Duncan. They were among the newly elected freshmen who came to Washington, D.C. on a platform of radical change to our nation’s spending habits. But the two congressmen quickly found their extreme stances to government spending at odds with the decisions they had to make on behalf of their congressional districts. Draper does an excellent job of showing how their ideologies became less applicable when the freshmen were confronted by the needs of their homes and communities. 

Sadly, the 111th Congress saw more than verbal abuse. Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head during a public speaking event. The gunman was considered mentally unstable, but the political influence was clear. And while Giffords survived her tragedy, she was forced to step down from Congress due to lengthy recovery time. Her return to the House floor for a deciding vote on the Debt Ceiling debacle of 2011 was a rare moment of unity for the congressmen and women present.

For me, the most useful perspective in the book comes from twenty-nine-term Michigan Democrat John Dingell, who had witnessed other partisan Congressional bodies hinder the slow progress of our nation’s government. He’d seen many legislators on both sides of the isle, people who negotiated in good faith with one another, knocked from their leadership positions because of partisan maneuvering. Dingell challenges us to question what is truly important to our nation, a winning political party, or democratically-achieved legislation for all.