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Government Program Project (Representation)
The US Congress is the one institution of government where the people’s interests—theoretically—are represented. Take a look into the makeup of Congress as the first step to understanding who is in power to see if they are representative of the people. To get you going, here is some data you can review to learn about the makeup of Congress. Take your time reviewing the link below:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/03/10/the-changing-face-of-congress/.
What you find from the link above may surprise you, such as the number of young people who are now serving or how the %’s in racial, ethnic, gender, and religious diversity has increased over time.
Here are some highlights from the Pew Research Center’s analysis of the 117th Congress, whose members were elected in 2020 (along with Joe Biden as president).
- People of Color (POC) make up 23% of the Congress today (2021), whereas in 1945, they constituted only 1% of Congress. Still, whites make up 77% of Congress, whereas (non-hispanic) white people are 60% of the general population.
- Women make up 27% of Congress today (2021), whereas in 1920, when women won the right to vote everywhere in America, there were no women in Congress. Still, women are 51% of the general population.
- There are 31 Millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) in the US House (and 1 in the US Senate) today (2021), up from 5 in the US House just 4 years ago.
- Veterans make up 17% of Congress today (2021), whereas there is only 7% of the general population who have served in the military.
- Christians make up 88% of Congress today (2021), whereas in the general population, 65% are Christian. While, about 3% of Congress affiliate with no religion, this compares to about 26% of the general population who affiliate with no religion.
The projected changes in the US population over the next 25 years indicate that even greater population diversification will occur (see the Census tables below).
US Census Bureau 2020 Census QuickFactshttps://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/HSD410219
Instructions
In a concise (300-500 words)write-up, answer the following questions utilizing the information above, as well as your own thoughts on racial diversity and representation in Congress:
- Do you think the trend toward a more demographically diverse (race, gender, age, religion, etc.) Congress will result in better representation of minority communities?
- Consider this – do you think it is possible for a white person to effectively represent communities of color—or for a POC to effectively represent a majority white community?
- President Joe Biden is an older white male—do you think he can effectively represent POC and younger people?
- Wesley Hunt is a black Republican who is the favorite to win a U.S. House seat in Texas that is majority white—if he wins the seat in November 2022, do you think that Wesley Hunt, who is black, can effectively represent a majority white district?
- Here’s some background on Wesley Hunt and the newly-created 38thS. House District in Texas:
- Consider this – do you think it is possible for a white person to effectively represent communities of color—or for a POC to effectively represent a majority white community?
1) https://ballotpedia.org/Texas%27_38th_Congressional_District
2) https://apps.texastribune.org/features/2021/texas-redistricting-map/?_ga=2.227622811.703026168.1654441126-850419573.1654441126(type-in “Tomball, TX.” in the dialogue box)
- Also consider this – think about the common views that Republicans and Democrats respectively share – is it possible that common political views are a more powerful influence than what we have in common among those of the same race or age?
- As the United States becomes more demographically diverse, do you expect that the trend toward electing more demographically diverse people to Congress will continue?
- Consider this – as we become more comfortable with transgender people, do you think we will elect transgender people to Congress?
- No transgender person has been elected to Congress to date, but there have been transgender people who have been elected to local and state positions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transgender_political_office-holders#2020
- Consider this – as we become more comfortable with transgender people, do you think we will elect transgender people to Congress?
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