Week Two

Week two of interning is now in the books and I can say that my preconceived notion of government was wrong. So wrong. For example, today's average citizen hates politicians because they're known to lose touch of the people they've sworn to protect.Working in a political office has allowed me to sympathies with these misunderstood politicians. It's not that they don't want to fulfill these promises, they sometimes can't. Many of the people who call into the office are on the extremes as far as their ideologies go. The reason for this takes root in what they call in statistics the "voluntary response bias". An example of this is when someone is content with the congressman's actions. One whose content will typically not take the time out to call into the office. Only someone who has a problem will deem it crucial to comment. It's for this reason that the callers  and publicized opinions represent extreme opposition.

In the office, I take many calls in which "extreme opposition" is an understatement. These callers can call for one of two reasons, either to vent about politics in general or to share a legitimate problem witha federal agency. It's definitely harder to help the conspiracy theorists but the local office has the sharpest scissors for slicing up red tape. These people are extremely frustrated much like those who are venting because they have given up on the federal agency and must lean on us to communicate on their behalf. In this way, the congressional office takes a leading role in helping the people. When offices see the congressman's name on the caller id they tend to pick up the phone.

Sadly, there are few callers wishing to complement the congressman or the GOP, but these is a silver lining. The congressman continues to be a man of the people by removing this red tape and using the local office to stay in touch with his constituents. From afar, politics may seem corrupt but once you wedge yourself deep enough below the surface you can see the underneath the congressman many work hard to help the district.