Blood on the Marble

For Tuesday, read Davidson, ch. 3 and 4. 

The book on violence in the antebellum Congress:

The title comes from this line, which provides the book's epigraph: In a letter to Senator Charles Sumner (MA) Rev. John Turner Sargent wrote that "blood would flow—somebody’s blood, either yours or Wilson’s, or Hale’s, or Giddings’— before the expiration of your present session on that field of blood, the floor of Congress.” 

Sargent was alluding to the burial place of Judas: "And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day" (Matthew 27:6-8 KJV).

It was literally an atmosphere conducive to violence:

All this in a room that was hot, stuffy, and smelly. At the end of a typical day, with the galleries full and hours of body heat trapped in the chamber, French thought that reading aloud to members was like reading “with his head stuck into an oven.” When the House moved to larger windowless quarters in 1857, the acoustics improved but the air didn’t. This wasn’t just a matter of cigar smoke, whiskey fumes, and body odor. A series of climate studies revealed the scope of the problem: no air was circulating in the chamber, and the wisp of a draft that rose through the floor grates had to pass through a layer of “lint, dirt, tobacco quids, expectoration, and filth of every sort.” One member claimed that the “confined and poisonous” air had caused “much sickness and even several deaths,” and indeed, a handful of congressmen died during an average session, though not necessarily because of the air. Ongoing whimpering from the floor produced another study, this one demonstrating that it was thirty degrees warmer inside than outside and that the chamber smelled of sewage from the basement. Visiting the new chamber not long after it opened, French wasn’t impressed. The idea of “shutting up a thousand or two people in a kind of cellar, where none of God’s direct light or air can come in to them . . . does not jump with my notions of living,” he groused. Thirty years later, members still declared the House “the worst ventilated building on the continent."

Professor Freeman explains how hard it was to research the violence (Start at around 9:30):

In 1856, Senator Sumner delivered his famous "Crime Against Kansas" speech.  He attacked the absent Andrew Butler (SC), saying he had " a mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean," the harlot, Slavery."

Two days later, Butler's cousin, Representative Preston Brooks of South Carolina, responded:




The Drunk History version:

You can see the cane in a Boston museum:

Fast Forward to January 6, 2021

The Electoral Count Act

The Eastman Plan

 Here is a useful thread that put this all in context: (I’ve unrolled it.)

Asha Rangappa @AshaRangappa_

THREAD. Since there’s so much [waves hands everywhere] crazy coming up all of a sudden, let me break down the theory of how the overturning of the election was supposed to go down:

January 15th 2022

7,059 Retweets16,465 Likes

STEP 1: John Eastman concocts a “legal blueprint” whereby VP Pence elides the requirements of the Electoral Vote Act based on 7 states submitting dual slates of electors, allowing Pence to either count the alternate slate or not count those states at all https://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2021/images/09/20/eastman.memo.pdf…

STEP 2: GOP operatives/officials in those 7 states in fact create a false slate of electors and submit them as official, so they can be used in the scenario above

STEP 3: DOJ, meanwhile, submits letters to each state, indicating (falsely) that they have reason to believe that there has been election fraud. This creates perception that results are actually in question, bolstering VP’s ability to discount their votes.

[She later tweeted: “Jeffrey Clark’s letter references the alternate slate of electors “which have already been submitted”… his DOJ scheme was part and parcel of the same Eastman/forged slate scheme (also creating appearance the the “alternate slate” is OK as a matter of law)”]

STEP 4: The Big Lie is repeated in rallies and social media, saturating information space to rile up base and give momentum to “Stop the Steal” movement

STEP 5: Plan for all of these angry and agitated individuals to come to D.C. on January 6, the day that Eastman’s plan will be put into effect. The protesters are sent to march on the Capitol, to further put pressure on VP Pence and lawmakers, as stated in Oath Keeper indictment.

STEP 6: Since mob attack is intended to keep up pressure on Pence/lawmakers, they must be able to remain in Capitol as long as possible.

So: 6a) Purge top DOD and replace with loyalists; and 6b) delay LE/National Guard response as long as possible.

STEP 7: ??? I’m not sure what was supposed to happen at this point. Presumably, Pence would somehow declare Trump the winner, or if not, the Capitol would remain occupied until they found a way to make him do it. Seems like they planned to continue the siege.

The point is that there are a lot of moving parts and evidence surfacing in a lot of different areas but they are all connected to one overarching goal: Keep Trump in power by subverting the counting of the electoral votes and preventing the transfer of power to Biden /END

A mysterious White House document outlined a plan for the Defense Department to seize voting machines.

A Sprint Through Congressional History

FOR THURSDAY, READ THE FREEMAN AND KARL EXCERPTS ON SAKAI.

"All of American history comes from the Civil War. It is the most important event in our history. Everything before it led up to it, everything since, everything, is a consequence of it." -- Ken Burns

From Article I, section 2

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

Akhil Amar on the Three-Fifths Clause:

The radical vice of Article I as drafted and ratified was that it gave slaveholding regions extra clout in every election as far as the eye could see - a political gift that kept giving. And growing. Unconstrained by any explicit intrastate equality norm in Article I, and emboldened by the federal [3/5] ratio, many slave states in the antebellum era skewed their congressional-district maps in favor of slaveholding regions within the state. Thus the House not only leaned south, but also within coastal slave states bent east, toward tidewater plantations that grabbed more than their fair share of seats. ... The very foundation of the Constitution’s first branch was tilted and rotten.

And not just the first branch. The Article II electoral college sat atop the Article I base: The electors who picked the president would be apportioned according to the number of seats a state had in the House and Senate. In turn, presidents would nominate cabinet heads, Supreme Court justices, and other Article III judges.

Consequences of the Three-Fifths Clause.  From William Lee Miller, Arguing About Slavery:

Five of the first seven presidents were slaveholders [Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson], for thirty-two of the nation’s first thirty-six years forty of its first forty-eight, fifty of its first sixty four, the nation’s president was a slaveholder. The powerful office of Speaker of the House was held by a slaveholder for twenty-eight of the nation’s first thirty-five years. The president pro tem of the Senate was virtually always a slaveholder. The majority of the cabinet members and — very important — of justices of the Supreme Court were slaveholders. The slaveholding Chief Justice Roger Taney, appointed by slaveholding President Andrew Jackson to succeed the slaveholding John Marshall, would serve all the way through the decades before the war into the years of the Civil War itself; it would be a radical change of the kind slaveholders feared when in 1863, President Lincoln would appoint the anti-slavery politician Salmon P. Chase of Ohio to succeed Taney.

The size of Congress (Davidson 28-29) 

, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Statehood -- Matt Glassman reflects:

The relevant constitutional provision is Article 4, section 3:

New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress

That’s right. All it takes to create a new state is the passage of a federal law. Right now, assuming they were willing to use the nuclear option to abolish the filibuster for state admissions, any unified government could make Puerto Rico or DC a state, or (with the consent of the state leg) divide Texas (or Wyoming) into any number of states. WIth just a law. Irreversibly. And the constitution puts no population or land size constraints on the process either.

These three features of the statehood process—irreversibility, a low threshold for creation, and no population/size constraints on the creation of a state—made the statehood process incredibly destabilzing in the 19th century. Any majority, at any time, could rearrange the balance of power in the legislature and the electoral college. And it unambiguously exacerbated the slave crisis: so many of the major flashpoints over slavery between 1820 and 1860 involved the flawed statehood process: the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise of 1850, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the Lecompton Constitution fight, even the Dred Scott decision.

"Institutionalization"

• "Well-bounded": Membership and leadership in the House has been increasingly walled-off. Incumbents tend to serve longer and leadership positions go to the most senior incumbents 
• "Internally complex": House functions have been regularized and specialized: committees, leadership, staff.
• Universalistic: The House now follows impersonal, universal decision criteria rather than particularistic criteria. "Precedents and rules are followed; merit systems replace favoritism and nepotism" (p 145) When the House makes a judgment about a contested election, the decision rests on the case's merits, not on partisan lines.

Rules

EXPERIENCE 

Staff

 

Dualites: Two Congresses, Two Chambers, Two Parties

  For Monday:

• Davidson, ch. 2

Some basics:

• Congressional pay and benefits
• Congressional staff titles
• Congressional staff salaries (find individuals here)

Two Congresses

• Article I of the Constitution and lawmaking
• Burke's speech to the electors of Bristol (Davidson, p. 6-7)
• Delegate v. Trustee

Demographics:

• Descriptive representation
• Overview
• Graphics
• Partisan demographic divide

Home style

"What you have to understand about my people is that they are a noble people. Humility is their form of pride. It is their strength; it is their weakness. And if you can humble yourself before them they will do anything you ask."  -- Frank Underwood

In Home Style, members try to convey

• Qualification
• Identification
• Empathy

USA Style

House-Senate differences

One major difference between the chambers is that few House members run for president, and seldom get far when they do. But a fairly large fraction of senators have gone for the White House:

• Michael Bennet (D-CO), 2020
• Cory Booker (D-NJ) 2020
• Ted Cruz (R-TX) 2016
• Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) 2020
• Lindsey Graham (R-SC) 2016
• Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) 2020
• Rand Paul (R-KY) 2016
• Mitt Romney (R-UT), 2008, 2012
• Marco Rubio (R-FL) 2016
• Bernard Sanders (I-VT) 2016, 2020
• Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), 2020

In the House, see

• Seth Moulton (D-MA), 2020
• Tim Ryan (D-OH), 2020
• Eric Swalwell (D-CA) 2020

Four Strategic Postures Since 2000 (House, by election year) 

                    Majority                          Minority 

In Party        Dems 08, 20                 GOP 06, 18

                    GOP 00, 02, 04, 16       Dem 10,12,14

           

Out Party     GOP 10,12,14              GOP 08, 20

                    Dem 06, 18                   Dem 00, 02, 04, 16

And there are even more flavors, as Matt Glassman points out.

Virtual Start

For Thursday, read the first chapter of Davidson and the second chapter of LaPira.

Objectives of course:

• Why the institution operates the way it does  
• What motivates members
• Reelection
• Power:  individual and party
• Good public policy
• How the institution has changed in recent years
• Polarization
• Nationalization of elections and internal congressional politics.
• How lawmakers, activists, and ordinary citizens accomplish their aims.
• Comparisons
• Two Congresses: Representative assembly and lawmaking body.
• Two chambers:  House and Senate are different.
• Two parties:  Republicans and Democrats differ ideologically, geographically, and demographically, though the lines have shifted over the years.
• Two kinds of status:  being in the majority is really different from being in the minority.
• Recent developments
• Impact of the 2020 elections. 
• Trump administration, impeachment, and insurrection

The Room Where It Happens

• Deliberation and compromise
• Missing today?  Will the situation change?

CMC Gov 101 US Congress Syllabus, Spring 2022

DRAFT - SUBJECT TO CHANGE

 US Congress

CMC Gov 101, Spring 2022
Tuesday and Thursday 11AM -12:15 PM

Roberts North 105

J.J. Pitney -- Office: 232 Kravis

Student Hours: Monday through Thursday 1-2 PM, starting in February. During the first 2 weeks, by appointment. And once we resume in-person classes, I can also meet by appointment.

Email: jpitney@cmc.edu 

Web: http://www1.cmc.edu/pages/faculty/JPitney/

ZOOM: https://cmc-its.zoom.us/j/92228697468
See also my Congress Links page.

General

Woodrow Wilson wrote: "Like a vast picture thronged with figures of equal prominence and crowded with elaborate and obtrusive details, Congress is hard to see satisfactorily and appreciatively at a single view and from a single stand-point. Its complicated forms and diversified structure confuse the vision, and conceal the system which underlies its composition. It is too complex to be understood without effort, without a careful and systematic process of analysis." 

In this course, we shall undertake such analysis. We shall ask how lawmakers behave at home and on Capitol Hill. We shall study Congress's procedures and structures, with an eye to explaining why some bills pass while others languish.

Classes

Class sessions will include lecture and discussion. Finish each week's readings before class because our discussions will involve those readings. We shall also talk about breaking news stories about Congress, so you must read a good daily news source such as Politico or RealClearPolitics.

Blog

Our class blog is at http://gov101.blogspot.com. I shall post videos, graphs, news stories, and other material there. We shall use some of this material in class, and you may review the rest at your convenience. You will all receive invitations to post to the blog. (Please let me know if you do not get such an invitation.) I encourage you to use the blog in these ways:

• To post questions or comments about the readings before we discuss them in class;
• To follow up on class discussions with additional comments or questions.
• To post relevant news items or videos. 

Grades

The following will make up your course grade:

• One three-page paper: 15%
• One four-page paper: 20%
• One five-page paper: 25%
• Simulation and writeup: 25%
• Participation, reading emails, blog: 15% 

Details

• The papers will develop your research and writing skills. In grading, I will take account of the quality of your writing, applying the principles of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style. If you object, do not take this course, or anything else that I teach.
• The simulation will require you to study your part and spend several sessions in character. 
• Class participation will hone your ability to think on your feet, as I shall call on students at random. If you often miss class or fail to prepare, your grade will suffer. I shall use the cold calls to judge how well you are keeping up with the material. If you object to this approach, do not take this course. 
• By Friday of each week, email me your reactions to that week's readings and discussions. In these emails, you may describe the overall theme of the readings, identify important information or concepts that you have learned, or raise questions or criticisms. These emails should be short -- one paragraph will be fine -- but they will provide me with a good sense of what you are getting out of the course.
• In addition to the required readings (below), I may also give you handouts, emails, and web links covering current events and basic factual information.
• Check due dates for coursework. Do not plan on extensions.
• Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty are not victimless offenses, because they hurt fellow students. Please study our Statement of Academic Integrity, which reads in part: "The faculty of Claremont McKenna College is firmly committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity. Each faculty member has the responsibility to report cases of academic dishonesty to the Academic Standards Committee."
• This class welcomes viewpoint diversity. See: https://heterodoxacademy.org/library/advice-on-syllabus-language/
• Your experience in this class is important to me, and I have a particular interest in disability. If you have set up accommodations with Accessibility Services at CMC, please tell me about your approved accommodations so we can discuss your needs in this course. You can start by forwarding me your accommodation letter. If you have not yet established accommodations but have a temporary health condition or permanent disability (e.g., mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health), please get in touch with Assistant Dean for Academic Success and Accessibility Services, Maude Nazaire, at Accessibilityservices@cmc.edu to ask questions or begin the process. General information and accommodations request information are at the CMC Accessibility Services website. 

Required Books [Make sure that you get the correct edition of the Davidson book.]

• Roger Davidson, Walter J. Oleszek, Frances E. Lee, and Eric Schickler, Congress and Its Members, 18th ed. (Washington: CQ Press, 2022).
• Jill Lawrence, The Art of the Political Deal (independently published, 2017).
• Timothy M. LaPira, Lee Drutman, and Kevin R. Kosar, eds., Congress Overwhelmed The Decline in Congressional Capacity and Prospects for Reform  (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020). 

The schedule is subject to change, with advance notice.

Jan 18, 20: Two Political Branches, Two Chambers, Two Congresses, Two Parties

"The art of the compromise,
Hold your nose and close your eyes.
We want our leaders to save the day,
But we don't get a say in what they trade away."
-- Lin-Manuel Miranda, "The Room Where It Happens," -- our class anthem. 

What are the major functions of Congress?

• Davidson, ch. 1. 
• LaPira, ch. 2.

Jan 25, 27: Congressional History and the Insurrection

"All you've got to know is this: right now the government of the United States is sitting on top of the Washington Monument, right on the very point, tipping right and left and ready to fall off and break up on the pavement." -- Edmond O'Brien, in Seven Days in May

How does today's Congress compare with that of the past? Have lawmakers gotten better or worse? What happened on January 6, 2021?

• Davidson, ch. 2
• Excerpts from Joanne B. Freeman (PO `84), The Field of Blood: Violence in Congress and the Road to Civil War  (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018). On Sakai.
• Excerpts from Jonathan Karl, Betrayal (New York: Dutton, 2021).  On Sakai.

THREE-PAGE PAPER ASSIGNED BY JAN 27: 

DUE IN SAKAI DROPBOX BY FEB 11.

READ STRUNK AND WHITE FIRST.

AND WATCH MY WRITING LECTURE.

Feb 1, 3: Congressional Elections and Home Style

"A congressional campaign is a lot like unmedicated childbirth: it's painful, it's messy, you don't think you can do what's required even as you're doing it, you likely consented to it months ago and now you're questioning your decisions, your likelihood to request drugs increases proportionally as you get closer to the big event, you gained weight, you don't realize you're screaming but everyone around you looks distressed, and your mother doesn't remember what it's like. Also, once you get what you want, you'll never sleep again. I'm sure there are things I'm missing, but I hear hormones make you forget so you'll do it every two years." -- Candace Valenzuela (CMC `06), 2020 candidate for US House, Texas 24.

How do congressional candidates emerge onto the scene? What accounts for the party balance in the House and Senate? How do incumbents hold their seats?

• Davidson, ch. 3, 4, 5.

Feb 8, 10: Parties and Leadership

“Joe (Biden) told me of one run-in he’d had on the Senate floor after the Republican leader blocked a bill Joe was sponsoring. When Joe tried to explain the bill’s merits, McConnell raised his hand like a traffic cop and said, `You must be under the mistaken impression that I care.’” -- Barack Obama

How do leaders and followers influence each other on Capitol Hill?

• Davidson, ch. 6.
• LaPira, ch. 14, 15.

Feb 15, 17: Congressional Staff and Legislative Support

"The Pelosi-Hoyer rivalry is one of the most fascinating I’ve ever observed in Congress, or anywhere in politics. It’s been intense, it’s been relentless, it’s been full of unexpected twists and turns, and it literally goes back a half-century, when Pelosi and Hoyer were both interns in the office of Daniel Brewster, the old Maryland senator." -- Steve Kornacki

• LaPira, ch. 5, 6, 8, 13.

FIVE-PAGE PAPER ASSIGNED BY FEB 15, DUE IN SAKAI DROPBOX BY MAR 4.

Feb 22, 24: Process 

"The Affordable Care Act contains more than a few examples of inartful drafting." -- Chief Justice John Roberts

Who writes the bills, and how? What is the role of congressional committees?

• Davidson ch. 7-8
• LaPira, 10

Mar 1, 3: Process, Interest Groups, and Decision Making   

"If procuring votes with offers of employment is what you intend, I’ll fetch a friend from Albany who can supply the skulking men gifted at this kind of shady work. Spare me the indignity of actually speaking to Democrats. Spare you the exposure and liability." -- William Seward (David Strathairn) in Lincoln

How do members decide how to vote? What is the relative influence of leadership, constituency, and ideology? How the "outside game" of media politics complement the "inside game" of legislative maneuvering?

• Davidson, ch. 9, 13.

Mar 8, 10: The Art of the Political Deal

"When you got skin in the game, you stay in the game
But you don’t get a win unless you play in the game."
-- Lin-Manuel Miranda, "The Room Where It Happens"

How do lawmakers engage in deliberation and bargaining?

• Lawrence, all.

Mar 15, 17: Spring Break

Mar 22, 24, 29, 31 : Legislative Simulation 

"I saw you with your sword earlier, You're petty handy with that thing. Have you ever heard of LARPing?" –LARPer in Hawkeye

Simulation may take place both during class time and in the evening.  The exact schedule and format will depend on the pandemic.

Apr 5, 7: Congress and the Executive

"It's a temper tantrum by the president. I'm a mother of five, grandmother of nine. I know a temper tantrum when I see one."-- Speaker Nancy Pelosi

How do the executive and legislative branches check each other? Do they intrude on each other's legitimate authority?

• Davidson, ch. 10-11.

SIMULATION WRITEUP DUE IN SAKAI DROPBOX BY FRIDAY, APRIL 8

Apr 12, 14: Oversight and the Courts

"Upon written request from the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives, the chairman of the Committee on Finance of the Senate, or the chairman of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request..." 26 U.S. Code § 6103

How do the branches battle over control of information? How does Congress try to influence the composition of the judiciary?

• LaPira, ch. 4
• Davidson, ch. 12 

Apr 19. 21: Budgets and Domestic Policy

"This Act may be cited as the `Stop the Shutdowns Transferring Unnecessary Pain and Inflicting Damage In The Coming Years Act.'" [aka, The "Stop STUPDITY Act"] -- Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA)

What is domestic policy? How does Congress handle issues such as employment and health care?

• Davidson, ch. 14.
• LaPira, ch. 9, 11, 12.
• Readings on current legislation, TBA. 

FOUR-PAGE PAPER ASSIGNED BY APR 21, DUE IN SAKAI DROPBOX BY MAY 6

Apr 26, 28: National Security and the Two Congresses

"Politics are changing and you don't want to be the last one holding the dog collar when the oversight committee comes." -- "Dan" (Jason Clarke) to "Maya" (Jessica Chastain) in Zero Dark Thirty

Can Congress effectively check the executive branch in wartime? Do lawmakers have the expertise and information to make decisions about national and homeland security?

• Davidson, ch. 15-16.

May 2, 5: Courage and Reconsideration

"[B]etween 1830 and 1860, there were more than seventy violent incidents between congressmen in the House and Senate chambers or nearby streets and dueling grounds, most of them long forgotten...I found canings, duel negotiations, and duels; shoving and fistfights; brandished pistols and bowie knives; wild melees in the House; and street fights with fists and the occasional brick." -- Joanne Freeman, The Field of Blood.

What is political courage?

• John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage, chapter 1 ("Courage and Politics") and Chapter 11 ("The Meaning of Courage'). You may find free online copies of the book here, here, and at the Honnold website.  Also see chapter summaries here.