Common Sense, Take 2: Congress as the Hinge- Institutions That Must Work Again

A new book, Common Sense: Take 2, A Call to Renew Democracy, contends that the United States is confronting not simply a political crisis but a deeper crisis of democratic capacity. Written by Russ Travers, a career public servant across multiple administrations who retired as Acting Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, the book focuses on the institutional, civic and cultural work needed to address this crisis.

Over a period of five weeks, members of The Steady State provide commentary on each of the book’s five themes. This essay, written by Greg Rushford, addresses the fourth theme: Congress as the Hinge: Institutions That Must Work Again

In his new book Russ Travers asserts that an “Exhausted Majority” of Americans reject today’s political extremism and incompetence that have led to “dysfunction, gridlock, misinformation and erosion of trust” in our three branches of government. Further, he cites Congress as the central hinge institution because so many other democratic repairs depend on whether Congress can function.

Travers’ observations are well-taken. As a former congressional aide who conducted national-security oversight for both Republicans and Democrats a half-century ago, I recall a time when we did the “hard things.”

During that time, Senate Democrats like William Fulbright of Arkansas, and Republicans including New Jersey’s Clifford Case, worked diligently throughout the 1960s and into the ‘70s to expose presidential overreach during the Vietnam War.

In 1971, I did research for Republican Pete McCloskey of California, who became the first congressman to call for the recognition of a new nation in South Asia: Bangladesh. Formerly part of Pakistan, Bangladesh had been suffering through a genocidal war when it sought independence. Of note, bipartisan commitment to fulfilling Congressional oversight duties, despite the issue, was still part of the institutional culture of Congress. The two congressional aides I worked most closely with, and trusted, for example, worked for Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat.

Two years later, I worked for Maryland Democrat Rep. Clarence D. Long, a member of the House appropriations committee. Long stressed the importance of working with the committee’s top Republican, Rep. Bob Michel of Illinois.

And in 1975-76, the then-majority Democrats hired a non-partisan staff on the House Intelligence Committee, where I worked closely with Illinois Rep. Robert McClory, the committee’s senior Republican. McClory, also a Judiciary Committee member, had himself drafted an article of impeachment against President Richard Nixon, a member of his own party, as Nixon had defied congressional subpoenas during the Watergate investigations.

McClory and other Intelligence Committee Republicans also courageously stood up for congressional prerogatives, fighting to obtain highly classified information on CIA operations from a reluctant Republican President Gerald Ford.

That bipartisan commitment towards Congressional oversight responsibilities despite differences in party, ideology, and views of the underlying issues, was then. Today, Congressional Republicans and Democrats can’t even work together to do the easy things.

A half-century ago, the notion that Congress would surrender its most basic constitutional responsibility–the proverbial “power of the purse”–was unthinkable. Yet Congress has not passed once-routine annual funding measures to keep government agencies running smoothly on anything like a consistent basis for the last thirty years!

As anyone who scans the daily headlines is constantly reminded, today this Republican-led Congress has too often accommodated President Trump’s MAGA extremism rather than exercising independent constitutional judgment. When the congressional majority starts treating oversight as optional, executive overreach expands, and public trust erodes; and it has.

U.S. intelligence agencies, the FBI and Department of Justice have been politicized, and are focused on harassing Trump’s political enemies. And the congressional committees with national security jurisdiction have too often responded with silence, deflection, or performative hearing, rather than sustained, fact-based oversight.

While today’s MAGA extremism is unprecedented in its threats to American freedoms, it’s important to remember that the seeds for this legislative breakdown were planted long before Donald Trump was first elected president in 2016.

A 2015 report by Danny Vinik in Politico noted that Congress hadn’t reauthorized the State Department’s diplomatic operations by passing the Foreign Relations Authorization act–which sets U.S. diplomatic priorities–since 2002. For thirteen years, American diplomacy had been funded in an ad-hoc fashion. Piecemeal authorization of diplomatic specifics had been tucked away into other agencies’ budgets–especially in the sprawling Defense Department–to suit the political interests of both Republicans and Democrats.

“A big problem is that the members of Congress who head the foreign-policy committees…tend to ignore the grunt work of the law and instead focus on the theater of the hearing room,” Vinik noted.

Looking ahead to this November’s congressional mid-term elections, members of our country’s Exhausted Majority have an opportunity to begin the necessary rebuilding process. Every citizen can do something: speak out for America’s traditional sense of decency in Town Halls, write letters to the editor of our country’s (remaining) small-town newspapers, treat neighbors with differing political views with respect. And when it comes to casting ballots on Nov. 6, vote for the candidate who is capable and willing to legislate, conduct serious oversight, defend constitutional limits and do the hard work of self-government—and then keep that person honest by demanding results once in office.

Russ Travers notes in his Common Sense, putting America back on the right track isn’t going to be easy. And it is up to all of us to do our part to lead the way.

Greg Rushford is a former senior congressional aide (defense & intelligence) and a former Washington-based journalist who specialized in the nexus between national security and global trade politics. He is a member of The Steady State.

Founded in 2016, The Steady State is a nonprofit 501(c)(4) organization of more than 400 senior national security professionals. Our membership includes former officials from the CIA, FBI, Department of State, Department of Defense, and Department of Homeland Security. Drawing on deep expertise across national security disciplines, including intelligence, diplomacy, military affairs, and law, we advocate for constitutional democracy, the rule of law, and the preservation of America’s national security institutions.