"Is there anything I can say other than, 'The President rode his bicycle into a tree'?"

[disarm_d]

What would be super helpful is if someone put together a primer on what parts of the West Wing are factually accurate and what parts are fiction, because at this point, 95% of what I know about politics comes from the show. There's also the 5% that came from the Canadian politics class I took last year. I saw only 5% because in that class I

Comments

[ext_63023]

re: the Senate and House of Representatives. Both are elected directly by the people of the states that they represent. All states have only two senators, but the more populous a state is, the more representatives they can have. Senators serve 6 years; Reps serve 2-4. As a result of the higher turnover and higher numbers, the House of Reps tends toward the "fiery activist" side of things. It reacts faster to the swings of public opinion. When Obama came in the whole place went Democrat, but now, just two years later, Republicans have control of the House again because people feel like Democrats didn't do enough with their power, whereas the Senate just slid more towards the middle.

Two of our founding fathers, Jefferson and Washington, were talking about the Senate and House, and Washington made the analogy of pouring tea into a saucer to cool it. The Senate is the saucer.

On the West Wing that may have worked against them because the Senate was more Republican--often the Senate goes to the other party after a President gets elected--but it can work the other way, too. Right now, for instance, the House of Representatives voted to repeal the universal health care law. The Senate's probably going to shoot that down, though, so it'll fail because both houses have to approve bills for it to go to the President.

ANYWAY.

[disarm_d]

Hmm, that's not what it's like in Canada. Weird!

[thepouncer]

There are quite a few Americans who feel that Congress did entirely too much while both houses and the Presidency were held by Democrats. Or who disagree with the philosophical path of accruing ever-greater federal government control of the economy and daily life.

And the House of Representatives have 2 year terms. They have to run again every other year, but incumbency confers a lot of advantages.

[ext_63023]

See, I thought it was 2 years, but then Wikipedia said this:

Representatives and Delegates serve for two-year terms, while the Resident Commissioner serves for four years.

I'm not sure who the "Resident Commissioner" is?

[thepouncer]

I had never heard of the Resident Commissioner, so I googled. It's Puerto Rico's non-voting representative to the House, and the only person with a four year term. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resident_Commissioner_of_Puerto_Rico

You learn something new every day!

[ext_63023]

AHHHHHHH, so that's it! I knew that PR has a vote in the House of Reps, but not the Senate, so I guess that's how they balance it out.

The More You Know. ~~~~~~~>*