Why Political Parties Are Important

Greetings from the Left Coast!

All his life, my father was an independent voter. He never joined a political party, and took pride in voting "for the man, not the party." When I became old enough to vote, my first inclination was to do the same. But in the forty years since then, I've discovered why my father was wrong:

First, after politicians get into office, they generally vote the way their party tells them to vote. This has never been more obvious than in the last 18 months. Why? Well, there isn't much of a future for a freshman Senator or Congressman who opposes his party leadership. You don't get the choice committee assignments that way. In fact, you may find that you don't even get any help the next time you're up for re-election. So you may think that you're voting "for the man," but you're really voting for the party, whether you intended to or not.

Second, with the sole exception of the Senate Ethics Committee (a.k.a. the Oxymoron Committee), the membership of every committee in each house of Congress is determined by the ratio of Democrats to Republicans in that house. E.g., if the House of Representatives is 60% Democrat, then the Democrats will also have 60% of the seats on each and every House committee. Moreover, the majority party will also hold the chairmanship of each and every committee.

And that's where the work gets done. The committees determine what legislation gets drafted, and are largely responsible for drafting it. The committees determine whether a particular piece of legislation even gets brought to the floor of the chamber for a vote. When the Senate and House pass slightly different versions of a bill, a joint reconciliation committee tries to come up with an acceptable compromise.

In short, the committees are where the power resides. Yet there is little or no personal accountability for the members. Everybody knows who the President is - he's an easy target. But can you name even one member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce? This lack of personal accountability explains why, although the overall approval rating of Congress is lower than the proverbial snake's belly, individual incumbents keep getting re-elected over and over again.

The takeaway from all this is clear: if you want to change the direction of the country, you must change the party that controls Congress. It's just that simple.

Thanks for listening.