Hollywood Gets Congress Wrong—and It’s Costing America Trust in Democracy

The following article is excerpted from "Citizen’s Handbook for Influencing Elected Officials."

Since the 1970s, public trust in American institutions—including Congress—has steadily declined. Approval ratings for the House and Senate usually hover in the teens. Certainly, some misdeeds by our elected leaders have contributed to this decline, and mainstream national media can claim its fair share of “credit” in portraying Congress in a negative light. Yet another major ingredient in the ugly formula poisoning public opinion of Congress is Hollywood. Movies and TV shows routinely portray Congress as craven, corrupt, selfish, and completely indifferent to the public interest. Regrettably, this is a wholly incorrect portrayal of our nation’s legislators.

Some years ago, Amazon premiered a TV show, Alpha House, loosely based on the true story of four male members of Congress living as roommates in a Washington, DC home. In one scene, a freshman senator agrees to provide a ride to a colleague to visit the home as a prospective new roommate. The senator arrives at the Senate office building in a limousine, drinking champagne with his mistress at his elbow. The truth is, the only people who would ride in a limo in Washington are Hollywood types, visiting for some black-tie dinner. Members of Congress are scrupulous about appearances and would never be caught on camera emerging from a fancy car.

There are many things Hollywood gets wrong about Washington; here are a few.

What Motivates Congress? While there are certainly self-interested jerks who attain public office, most of Congress is comprised of decent, hardworking public servants. A few years ago, a national polling firm asked Americans if they agreed with this sentence: “Most members of Congress care what their constituents think.” Only 11 percent of Americans agreed with that statement (which is probably a scarier number than Congress’s low approval rating, since the governing class listening to those they govern is pretty much the bedrock of our democracy). However, in a survey in which members of the U.S. House were asked to rate the most important aspects of their job, 95 percent said “staying in touch with constituents.” Members of Congress view it as both their political and moral responsibility to be accountable to their constituents.

How Members of Congress Live. In 1994, not long before he was about to make history as the first speaker of the House of Representatives in 130 years to be ousted in a re-election bid in his home congressional district, Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-WA) watched a focus group of constituents. The facilitator asked voters in eastern Washington about their congressman's life. An ironworker described what he thought dinner would be like at a congressman’s house: a limousine would take him to a mansion in Georgetown, and he would be served a sumptuous meal, eating foods the constituent would not recognize and using utensils the average person would not know how to use.

Foley was stunned. The gap between the constituents’ perception and the reality of his daily routine was shocking. He was probably remembering the tuna sandwich he wolfed down for lunch earlier that day, snuck in between 13 meetings over a 14-hour stretch—a common schedule for him and for most members of Congress. While members of Congress are paid more than the average American family, they must maintain two households. Some even sleep in their offices because they cannot afford the steep rent in metropolitan Washington. I once had a most amicable conversation with the House Minority Leader as he was shopping for vegetables at a Washington grocery store. Most members of Congress are a lot more like the head of a typical American family, just trying to balance the challenges of an incredibly hard job with raising a family.

While some fictional portrayals of Congress have captured Washington accurately, most get it wrong. Former Washington Post White House correspondent Juliet Eilperin penned a wonderful rebuttal to the cynics who revel in distorting Washington. “Many journalists and the officials they cover moved to this town because they care about the ideas and the policies that help shape the world we live in. … It’s why my parents moved here nearly half a century ago, and it’s why I have stayed.” I’m not saying that the American public does not occasionally send a Frank Underwood to Congress (the devious politician from House of Cards). That doesn’t change the perhaps boring truth: the vast majority of members of Congress are solid public servants who sacrifice much for their districts, states, and nation.

Bradford Fitch is the former CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation, a former congressional staffer, and author of “The Citizen’s Handbook for Influencing Elected Officials."