What do you do when you are running for Congress, and congressional public approval levels are at record lows? Apparently, you keep your return destination on the QT.
A look at congressional campaigns by the Washington Post revealed that incumbent representatives and senators are doing the best they can to avoid using the word Congress, and they aren’t too keen on using the words representative or senator, either.
According to the article, one incumbent is running as the possessor of common sense, and keeping quiet about a congressional career that dates back to 1995.
Their running as fathers, sons, neighbors. They’re running as agents of change, even if they’ve been part of an essentially gridlocked legislative body for years.
What you won’t see in commercials is footage of the individual making a statement in a committee meeting or standing on the steps of the Capitol itself.
In an environment when approval levels are low and throw-the-bums-out sentiment is high, such a message could be seen as aiding and abetting the challenger.
RBR-TVBR observation: So it’s come to this. Our leaders in Washington are reduced to making oblique self-references the same way makers of things like hemorrhoid products are. In both cases, you can’t see the object of the pitch actually doing its job.
