Bipartisan living: A college solution to a Congressional problem

| Staff Columnist

When Americans demand bipartisan solutions from their partisan legislature, Congress must do more than take bipartisan dates to the State of the Union; congressmen from different parties must move in together.

During last week’s State of the Union address, members of Congress broke with tradition of sitting by party and sat with people across the aisle. Most members picked their “dates” by similar home states or committee assignments; others just picked based on friendships. One group of members went together because they played in the congressional softball game together. Even if only for this one night, congressmen came together with peers because of something beyond party affiliations, a meaningful connection beyond ideology.

Bringing together people from different backgrounds: what Congress managed to do for one night, and what Wash. U. does on every freshman floor. The Office of Residential Life puts together a mix of individuals from all over the world with different backgrounds. They pick roommates by important traits: room temperature and bed time, not religion or political party. And for the most part, we learn from our roommates and get a bigger perspective of the world.

During the rest of college, we pick who we live with based on friendship and not necessarily those with similar backgrounds. I lived with my teammates on the football team by sophomore year, and I roomed with one of my good friends, though he is not necessarily someone I have a lot in common with: I’m a MSNBC-watching Jewish Democrat from the coast; my sophomore roommate was a Catholic from a small town in Missouri who hunted on the weekend and had no interest in politics. We were brought together because of our differences, eating challah while listening to Kenny Chesney. While he rarely brought up politics, I have a broader sense of the world and understand other political perspectives because I lived with someone from another background.

My knowledge has grown further this past year because of my roommates. One is the president of Young Americans for Liberty, a group he describes as college students “advocating for limited government ideals.” I would characterize them as College tea partiers. He treasures his free-market principles so much that he refuses any market interaction that requires him to do dishes. We fundamentally disagree on many issues but never become disagreeable; we have the ability to meaningfully discuss issues important to both of us while remaining friends, something members of Congress struggle to do.

Congress could learn a lot from Wash. U. Members live in a myopic world, full of single-caucus lunches and partisan rhetoric with little opportunity to get to know their peers. They spend less time now in Washington, and when they are there, they spend less time mingling with their fellow members and more time fundraising from partisan political action committees. I’m not advocating that senators share apartments, but members of Congress would benefit from getting to know each other rather than just their party.

Daniel is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached at [email protected] or twitter.com/doctorfishma

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