The iCongressman by Mikael Carlson Page A

him
mid-swallow. “He said that?” Vince’s admiration level of Blake just went up
another notch. Congressman Bennit nods in response as Vince wipes his chin.
      “Well, he’s right,”
Kylie offers, getting everyone to turn their attention to her. I guess she is
going to lead this charge.
    “Oh, not you too?”
    “Look, just because you don’t want to hear it doesn’t make
it untrue. I’ve been covering politics my entire adult life and you want to
know what I’ve learned? People don’t want to give a
damn.”
    “I already figured that out, Kylie. I ran on that basis the
first time, remember?”
    “That’s not what I mean. People elect others to run the
government and make decisions for them so they don’t have to. Hell, most of
them wouldn’t even want to if given the chance. Americans have their own
problems and don’t want to worry about things that don’t directly affect them
or that they can’t easily do something about. The only reason they get excited
about anything political is when it’s about an issue they like, a law they
don’t, or a person they believe in actually runs for office.”
    “And you’re that man, Congressman,” I say, finally getting a
chance to chime in on Kylie’s monologue. It’s one of the few contributions I
get to make around here. “Vince, Vanessa, me, and all the others joined your
campaign for that reason. People voted for you for that reason. Now we are all
just waiting for you to be the leader you need to be.”
    “Honey, all I’m saying is millions of Americans lost faith
in the system a long time ago,” Kylie continues after my contribution to the
argument. “The pettiness, the partisan politics, the corruption … they all
contributed to a collective national blindness for what goes on here in Oz.”
    “And you want me to pull back the curtain?”
    “No, we can’t settle for that. Not anymore. We need you to
kill the Wicked Witch and set Oz free.”
    “Oh, that’s it? So now I’m Dorothy? I suppose you guys are
going to be handing me the buckets of water.”
    “Damn straight we will be,” Vanessa adds, the serious look
on her face letting everyone know that the chica is
itching for a fight.
    “How? We don’t have the weapons we
once did. I have all of one ally in the House, and I’m pretty sure he’s spent
too much time in the Texas sun. The media has turned on me, I have no clout or
influence thanks to the political parties, and our social media following is
dwindling. Even you can’t help with that anymore, sweetie, because you can’t
influence what is reported like you did in the campaign,” the congressman
accurately points out.
    “Since when do we care what the media thinks?” Vince
challenges. It’s an honest question coming from the press secretary. “We didn’t
during the campaign. They hated on us for ignoring them, and chastised us for
not talking about issues. It didn’t bother us then, so why now?”
    “It shouldn’t. We need go back to breaking all the rules and
not caring what the media or anyone else here says,” Vanessa implores.
    “And use the social media machine we built up to get our
side of the story to the only group who matters—the voters back home,” I add,
taking up the argument. Damn, you’d think we rehearsed this. I guess we are all
so passionate about it, we didn’t have to.
    “Social media doesn’t work for us anymore. People have tuned
us out,” the congressman offers. He’s not one to make excuses, so hearing one
come out of his mouth is a little shocking.
    “How do you know? When was the last time you even logged
onto Facebook or sent a tweet?” Kylie demands, probably
knowing the answer as sure as we do.
      “You think the people
back home care? You’ve seen our polling. What does the Marist poll have us down
by? Twenty? Thirty? I’m
beginning to feel like Dick Johnson.” In our defense, our numbers are much
higher than the eight percent of the vote Johnson won in the fall