I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to fill up with gas and pick up a tub of Jake’s Bar-B-Que. Jake makes the best barbecue in the area. When I pulled up in front of the gas pumps, Maureen came out and asked if I needed a fill up. I was right surprised to see Jake’s wife come out. She doesn’t normally pass much time at the store unless Jake is unable to be up and about. My first thought was to ask how Jake is getting on and Maureen assured me Jake is just fine. She said Jake had gone to an appointment with his eye doctor. Jake has been complaining his glasses were not doing right and Maureen had finally convinced him to go and get a check up. It was a bit of work to get Jake to go. He is at that store from before six o’clock in the morning until past sunset and he takes his responsibility seriously, but Maureen had finally had him come to see the world would not end if he was gone for a couple of hours.
Maureen finished filling my tank and put the cap back on. I followed her inside and paid for the gas. Then I saw the Reverend Johnson and Ned Simpson over by the pot belly stove. The good Reverend was stacking in a load of stove wood in the old box where Jake keeps fuel for the stove. I supposed he was getting ready for the winter to come. Willard Smith was sitting over on one of the crates that serves as a chair around the stove. He had a stack of papers in his hands. There are about half dozen old crates and nail kegs scattered about the stove and one chair. The Reverend’s brother mostly used the chair before he passed on. Now the chair has fallen to use by the Reverend. I ambled over to where the men were gathered about and the Reverend greeted me with a “Good Morning.” I said a pleasant “Hello” to everyone and saw what Willard was carrying in his hands was a pack of flyers. The big print on the flyers read, “More Respect For The Representatives In Congress!” My curiosity was aroused to the point I was moved to ask Willard the purpose of the flyers in his hands. He grinned up at me and said he was starting a grass roots campaign for Congress. I was some taken aback and asked if Willard had started a campaign to get himself elected. He blinked and then let out a laugh. Ned Simpson grinned also and then put in his opinion that he had never accused Willard of being the brightest bulb in the area, but Willard certainly was not crazy. Why in the world would any man carrying a full deck want to be in Congress?
Willard lifted his eyebrow and said that attitude was exactly the issue his campaign was designed to address. These days all the opinion polls taken indicate national respect for Congress is at an all time low. In general, people in this country have less and less respect for the honorable members of that great body. In fact, respect for politicians in general, from the President on down, is in the pits. Americans just generally have no confidence in their elected officials. Willard’s campaign is designed to remedy that sad state of affairs. The fact is, Willard was warming to his subject, the politicians in Congress have never been thought very highly of. Take a look at the most popular political movie ever to come out of Hollywood. That would be “Mister Smith Goes To Washington”. In that movie, actor Jimmy Stewart plays a common man who goes to Congress to find the place filled with crooks and frauds. The Stewart character, an outsider, turns out to be the only honorable man in the whole institution and the movie is all about Jimmy Stewart going the last mile and beyond to prevent the members of Congress from committing a terrible wrong. It is Jimmy Stewart, the outsider, who is the hero and not the members of Congress.
Mister Smith may be an outstanding example of the general attitude toward members of Congress, but that attitude is not unique and it is not new. Look back through history. When have people ever held any abundance of respect for members of Congress? How about in Roman times? Rome is where the Senate and representative politicians of the modern understanding first came about. Who are the heroes of classical Rome? We hear of Julius Caesar and of Roman generals and emperors. But no place is there an outstanding senator. The only senator we can remember by name is Cato, and he is remembered as the man who instigated the Punic Wars, the wars that led Rome down the imperial path and helped turn Rome from a republic into an empire ruled by one despicable Caesar after another. Cato is certainly no one to look upon with respect. Things have not improved with the passage of time. One of humorist Will Rogers’ most famous lines is his insistence he did not make jokes about Congress. He claimed he just read the papers and reported the facts. So Congress has never been the target of much respect. But today, things are worse than ever with all the scandals and improprieties associated with Congress. It appears the only politicians who have not been indicted are the ones who have not yet been caught.
Willard has been doing his research and he has come to the conclusion a politician’s respect is inversely proportional to general public knowledge of his activities. While contempt for Congress may have been high back in the thirties at the time Will Rogers made his jokes, distrust had in no wise reached the levels it has achieved today and Willard believes the average American is today more distrustful of politicians because they know more about them. Back years ago, Americans could only learn about how Congress conducted itself by newspapers and movie newsreels. Information was limited. Today, what with unlimited news coverage, one can even find a cable channel where members of Congress can be observed 24/7 making fools of themselves. The American people have much more opportunity to observe politicians as they actually are. Willard insists the solution to salvaging respect for Congress is to cut members off from public access and have all business conducted behind closed doors. It is only if the American people are protected from exposure to politicians in true character that Congress will ever regain any measure of respect. Willard insists his campaign for more secrecy in Congress will meet with wide public support. I have to admit his is a novel idea. I’ll need to think on it a bit.
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