Most people who find their jobs to be incredibly hard and wearisome may seek out other employment opportunities.
But for one House Democrat, the pain must be too good to quit.
Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), who is running to fill Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) seat when she retires, wants Americans to know being a member of Congress is just so hard.
So elect her for an office that has a six-year term!
During an appearance on CBS’ “Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Porter addressed the belief Congress is “glamorous.”
“The truth is, it’s like you’re hot, you’re late, you’re sweaty. You don’t know what’s going on. You’re flying back and forth,” she said, adding, “And I think we should be more honest with the American people about [how] Congress is a mess. And that’s because democracy is kinda supposed to be a mess, that’s OK.”
Well, if you “don’t know what’s going on” after a couple years in office, perhaps being in Congress and making decisions is not the right job for you, or you have a horrible staff.
She continued:
“But what’s not OK is lying to the American people about it and pretending that it’s all easy and it’s all cut and dry. Because the truth is, it’s hard. It is hard to go to work every day with Marjorie Taylor Greene as a colleague. I mean most people would just find a different cubicle, a different job. It’s hard to commute 3,000 miles.”
She then bemoaned the fact she does not feel as respected as she did when she was a professor.
Porter then posited Americans do not like or trust Congress because lawmakers are not “straight with them” about what Congress is “really like.”
Watch the video below:
Rep. @katieporteroc: “It’s hard to go to work every day with Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) as a colleague … It is hard to commute 3,000 miles to your job.” pic.twitter.com/FhjPTXIV2C
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) April 12, 2023
Certainly, the machinist making $23 an hour and trying to put food on the table for his, or her, family while inflation remains high can sympathize with Katie Porter’s plight.
Honestly, we have no idea how hard it is to get on an air-conditioned, or heated, aircraft to fly to a heavily guarded, ornate building and sit and talk about policy and oversight while making nearly $200,000, and having a staff to cater to our needs.
Not to mention, the commute for congresspeople has become significantly easier than the days when lawmakers would have to leave their farms and businesses, get on a horse and spend days traveling to the Capitol.
Now, Porter can fly to and from Washington, D.C. in a matter of hours. And it is not as though there should have been a surprise about the commute. It is no secret where Congress meets. Yet she chose to run for office.
And there is the sacrifice of having to be around rich and powerful people and being invited to fancy events and cocktail parties or being invited onto late-night shows, gasp!
The agony. The inhumanity of it all.
It would be one thing if Porter was bemoaning the degradation of the discourse and civility in Congress where lawmakers scream on the House floor, or about how digging into the details around some tax policy is not really fun and sexy.
She could have also spoken about the incentive structures created by cable news networks for lawmakers to try to “own” the other side instead of working together to build consensus and pass sensible legislation — all while Congress abdicates its authority to the executive branch.
Instead, she talked about how it is hot and she has to travel a lot — yet somehow she wants at least six more years of it.
