Congress and the Minority Party

In Congress, the role of the minority party can be extremely difficult to define. There are a myriad of forces at play that dictate just how much legislative influence the minority party can wield. One mitigating factor would be the temperament of the majority party at the time and the genuineness of their promises to set aside partisan rancor and work together for the common good.

When the political climate is conducive, the minority party can have a significant impact on the shaping of policy in government. Obviously, the competence of the respective house leaderships is crucial to the success of either party. As documented in our readings, because of various rules changes and the neutering of committees and subcommittees, more power and influence has been placed in the hands of the Speaker of the House. This trend, along with the increasingly partisan nature of Congress, has put the minority party in a more precarious position than ever.

It has been argued that the primary role of the minority party is to be the voice of dissent and to protect the people from tyranny by the party in control. This argument is a convenient one and can be used to justify obstructionist behavior in Congress. Consider the efforts of the Republicans in 2006, who after losing the House after twelve years in control, proceeded to use the filibuster and other parliamentary procedures to thwart the Democratic legislative agenda. Now I do appreciate that there was culpability on both sides for the stalemate, as the Democrats did not exhibit enough party unity and Nancy Pelosi, while tenacious, can be rather polarizing at times.

As far as the Republicans being discouraged or feeling ineffectual, there is always another election right around the corner. While they have now lost control of the White House as well, they could still regain control of the House and Senate in two years. Of course, this possibility is directly contingent on the Obama agenda failing miserably and the country plunging further into the depths of despair, so we would prefer this didn’t occur.