Better Know My District

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BY CHARLIE THAU

This summer, I had the privilege of working at the district office of Congressman Jerrold Nadler, who represents New York’s 10th District. As the summer began, I wondered whether the experience would culminate in my finally finding a political allegiance. As I grew up in a household with one parent a staunch liberal and the other a conservative, I have long been persuaded by arguments for policies of both sides while considering myself an Independent in the interim. Congressman Nadler is known as one of the most liberal members of Congress, so I anticipated that by the end of the summer I would react either very favorably or unfavorably to his policies, and therefore have a firmer conviction as to which side of the aisle I would ultimately sit.

While grappling with my own political ideology, I also wondered if I could unearth any insight into a quintessentially American paradox that has been a focal point of 21st century politics: citizens hate Congress, but love their Congressmen. Statistics support this apparent paradox, as incumbents retain their seats 90% of the time, while Congress’ approval rating remains a dismal 12.3%. In essence, people love their own little slice of government but hate the cake. How is that possible? The conclusion that I arrived at, an answer that eventually helped me solidify my own political allegiance, was that this phenomenon may be due to an often-overlooked aspect of politics—casework.

When I started the internship I had little idea what casework actually entailed, save for the ambiguous textbook definitions I had come across in various history classes. I quickly realized, however, that these definitions were intentionally vague because the concept itself is difficult to define. Essentially, it means that the office assists any constituent with virtually any problem regarding a federal agency. For example, constituents might call on any given day for help on issues as dissimilar as assistance receiving a visa for a relative in Uzbekistan and investigating why the postman failed to deliver their mail.

The more cases I saw, the more I believed that casework was a clear example of the capacity of the federal government to help everyday Americans. Congressman Nadler’s caseworkers were extremely efficient and always knowledgeable on a myriad of governmental issues. This was an actualization of the liberal axiom that the government is a vehicle to assist citizens—particularly the less fortunate. Over the first few weeks of my summer, this was my prevailing conclusion and I started to sway from the center to the left.

After the initial weeks of my internship, I was surprised to realize that—somewhat ironically— casework functions as a way for constituents to cut through bureaucracy. Many Americans— particularly those who consider themselves conservative—deride government as too large and invasive, with government bureaucrats holding back progress. In my experience this summer, I realized that a plurality of the callers were asking, either directly or indirectly, for the Congressman to cut through painstakingly long bureaucratic processes. This would be accomplished either through a call or an email from our office, or a direct letter signed by the Congressman himself to the organizations from which help was sought (most of which were written by the interns).

The recent Veteran’s Affairs (VA) scandal revealed how slow processing times at VA hospitals led to a severe backlog in health care, and, tragically were responsible for the deaths of many veterans. The bureaucratic standstill at some of the federal agencies that Congressman Nadler’s office dealt with also had severe consequences that were both enlightening and disturbing. It was routine for agencies to take years to process claims, and it was truly disappointing to see that many of these service agencies had such bureaucratic backlog. This, unfortunately, is an issue that almost certainly would have been solved in a private sector company, which would have an obvious incentive to quickly and efficiently solve the constituents’ problems.

As the summer ended, I had found reasons to support either end of the political spectrum, yet participating in casework reinforced my conviction to remain an Independent. Seeing firsthand the merits of both sides of the argument about the size of government in America as a microcosm of the larger conflict between both parties absolutely convinced me that committing to either side was counterproductive. To me, being an Independent means that each issue should be judged thoughtfully, and separate from the preconceived biases of party politics. By disaggregating individual policies from partisan agendas, it’s possible to step back and see that as former New York Daily News columnist Lars-Erik Nelson once said: “The enemy isn’t conservatism. The enemy isn’t liberalism. The enemy is bullshit.”

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