The "Terrible" 10% Get the Most Airtime

Much of what happens on Capitol Hill doesn’t make the news.

A 2023 survey by the Pew Research Center found that 65% of Americans “always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics.” Sixty-three percent say they have low or no confidence in the future of the U.S. political system. And 86% believe “Republicans and Democrats are more focused on fighting each other than on solving problems.”

But are the people within the U.S. government really that bad?

Before you answer, consider how many elected leaders among the the 535 members of Congress you can name. Apart from your own House and Senate members, it’s likely easiest to identify those who receive the most media attention. The people followed around by cameras because they have a reputation for the taking most polarizing, often extreme positions. Or as the congressional staffers I interviewed tend to call them, “The Grandstanders.”

“You know, maybe 10% of House members are grandstanding and terrible people. But the vast majority of the House were there for the right reasons… They ran because they cared and they were working on the issues because they cared.”

- Senior congressional staffer

It’s true that Congress has become increasingly polarized in recent decades for all sorts of reasons. I currently have a dozen books on my desk with twice as many arguments about what and who are to blame.

What’s important to remember is that much of what happens day to day on Capitol Hill doesn’t make the news. It never goes viral. There are endless procedures and testimonies that are simply too mundane to be widely shareable. Goings-on without villains or gaffes. Ordinary business that doesn’t sell ads or provide adequate fodder for OpEds and the talking heads on cable news and TikTok. “Boring” stuff that keeps the nation going happens all the time. We just rarely hear about it.

Now returning to my question above, I suspect most readers are unfamiliar with the vast majority of elected leaders. And we probably give even less thought to the thousands of congressional staffers working behind the scenes on policy issues related to our health, national security, the economy, and more.

So from the outside, it can appear that the people serving in Congress are one dimensional. But we shouldn’t base our impressions of politics and politicians solely on the clips and stories that make their way to us through popular media channels. Look closer and you’ll see there are actually tens of thousands of people embedded in the legislative process. And thankfully, most aren’t “The Grandstanders” vying for our attention.