By Matt SpectorThe Daily Northwestern
Democratic leaders entered the 110th Congress on Thursday promising monumental change and an emphasis on political integrity.
Some members of Northwestern’s political organizations and faculty, however, are not as optimistic.
The Democrats have only a slight majority, said Daniel Galvin, a political science professor.
“It’s not a huge margin (over the Republicans). It’s a razor-thin margin,” Galvin said. “For the Democrats in the Congress to pass any legislation that they can use as a Democratic accomplishment, it clearly depends on keeping their membership in line.”
He said success for the Democrats would depend not on the particulars of policy, but on the politics of personal relationships. He said he also doubts that a more balanced Congress will bring about a decrease in partisanship.
“Looking at how the minority party was treated by the majority party in the last few years in Congress, it doesn’t bode well for the new minority party,” Galvin said.
Weinberg sophomore Chad Watkins, a member of College Democrats, said Americans showed in the November election that they needed a different voice.
The American people are tired of reading about “red meat” issues such as gay marriage and abortions, he said.
“If the Democrats can put the bread and butter issues on the table – Social Security, Medicare and minimum wage, issues that the average American cares about – they can really get things done,” Watkins said.
College Republican Linnea Perelli-Minetti, a Weinberg sophomore, said she believes the tenuous balance in Congress will be an opportunity for bipartisan legislation.
“We did lose some of the moderates in the Republican party. It’s going to hurt some of the polarization in Congress,” she said. “We’re going to have to see more working together on behalf of both parties.”
Perelli-Minetti said the prominence of independents such as Connecticut’s Sen. Joseph Lieberman, who straddle party lines, shows the parties are trying to work together. But some students affiliated with neither major party doubt that the new Congress will bring much change.
“We will see a lot of posturing and a lot of smoke and some aggression,” said Nick Burt, a member of Campus Greens. “Fundamentally, I don’t think there is going to be widespread change.”
The Medill senior said he hopes this Congress will do away with “business-as-usual” politics and bring change to Iraq.
“The Republicans are pretty much sunk in that country,” he said. “On the issue of Iran, they’re completely schizophrenic.”
Sectarian violence in Iraq has created obstacles that politicians and the American people didn’t expect, Perelli-Minetti said.
“We’re going to have to work together to get things done. I don’t support a timeline for Iraq,” she said. “You can’t really time something that hasn’t happened yet. We’re really teetering on conflict over there.”
Galvin said it is clear that the agenda for Iraq needs reform.
“The status quo is unsustainable,” he said. “Whether change will include a short-term buildup and withdrawal of troops, one thing that is clear is that something has to change.”
Perelli-Minetti added that, to make headway domestically and in the Middle East, politicians need to bridge historic divides in Congress.
“It’s such minor things that define our differences,” Perelli-Minetti said. “It’s my hope that people can realize that.”
Reach Matt Spector at [email protected].
