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It has been suggested, and apparently without opposition so far, that members of Congress are no longer seated separately, by party. The idea being that by simply mixing up the seating arrangement, a psychological wall will come down.
A simple gesture, perhaps, but it has all the overtones of an idea with insidious, simple elegance. I am all for it!
A simple gesture, perhaps, but it has all the overtones of an idea with insidious, simple elegance. I am all for it!
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june11/shieldsbrooks_01-14.htmlMARK SHIELDS: ...I mean, I think it was Jesse Jackson that said, we came over in different ships, but we are all in the same boat. And I think that has to be acknowledged, admitted, and worked upon at this point.
One of the encouraging signs was Mark Udall, the senator...
JIM LEHRER: Yes, I was going to ask you about that.
MARK SHIELDS: Well, the senator from Colorado, freshman Democratic senator.
JIM LEHRER: Yes.
MARK SHIELDS: And he's proposed -- we have all watched this puppeteering in the State of the Union.
JIM LEHRER: Oh, yes.
MARK SHIELDS: Our side gets up and cheers. Then the other side gets up and cheers. And we sit on our hands. Then they sit on their hands.
And he suggested that they all sit together, I mean, you know, not sit on strict Democratic side and Republican side. Lisa Murkowski, the Republican senator from Alaska, has cosigned a letter with him. Nineteen senators have agreed, including John McCain. Ten of the 19, interestingly enough, a number of them Republicans, are women. Maybe that will be the leading in civility.
But that is an encouraging sign. And even Kevin McCarthy, the Republican whip in the House, has sort of given it a semi-endorsement anyway.
But that's a step, I mean, that we can sit and talk with each other and we're human beings.
JIM LEHRER: Why would that be important?
DAVID BROOKS: Because the chief dynamic in the Congress is the herd mentality, my herd and your herd.
I have stopped -- when a member of Congress starts telling me about the other the party, I almost want to stop listening, because I know what is going to follow is going to be false, because they just don't know the people in the other party very well.
And so they get this herd dynamic. And it is materialized in the way they sit together and meet together and react as one. And, if you actually physically interspersed them, I think it would defang that herd mentality, and actually have a material difference, because the geographical way they organize their lives is -- has an effect.
I was on the Senate floor before the session with a senator, and he was showing me the desks. And I wanted to go see the Kennedy desk, but he was a Republican. And he said, oh, it's somewhere over there. It's like he didn't quite know where it was, because it was on the other side of the floor. And that's...
JIM LEHRER: Well, I mean, it is a room. It's not very far.
DAVID BROOKS: Right. It's not a very big room.
(LAUGHTER)
JIM LEHRER: Right.
DAVID BROOKS: And he is a great senator, but, you know, there's that difference. And it's worth breaking up on every occasion.
JIM LEHRER: You think it could matter? You think it could really matter, too, right, Mark?
MARK SHIELDS: I'm hopeful, Jim. I mean, it's subject to verification. And you don't want to be unrealistic. But I'm hopeful. I really am.
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