Our House & Our Senate

There is an old Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song called “Our House.” Most of you know it. Graham Nash wrote it.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – 07 – Our House (by EarpJohn)

It is a quiet song. A fire is lit. Somebody has brought flowers home. The hard days are behind them, and the room is warm. Nothing big happens in it. That is the whole point. It is the sound of people who can finally sit down.

That is how I feel this week.

The people went to the polls. They stood in line. They made their choice. And for the first time in a long while, I took a deep breath and let it out slow. I can breathe again. I can relax a little.

But only a little. Because the song is about a home. And a home does not keep itself.

We have another house. The House of Representatives. It belongs to us just as much as the one we sleep in. We pay for it. We fill its seats. Every two years we get to clean it out.

The new Congress sits down on January 3rd. That is about sixty days from now. In those sixty days, two jobs get filled that matter more than almost any other. The Speaker of the House. And the leader of the Senate majority.

Here is the dirty little detail. You do not vote for either one.

The Speaker is elected by the members of the House on the first day. The Senate leader is picked by his own party behind closed doors. And the real decision comes earlier. Each party holds its own leadership vote in the weeks after the election. By the time the cameras roll in January, the deal is already done.

So who decides? The insiders. The members, the donors, the people who have been running the show for years. They pick their own. Then they hand the name to us like it was always going to be that way.

That is not how a house should run.

Think about your own home. Would you let somebody move in and take the head of the table without asking you? Would you hand the keys to a man you never met, because a few folks down the street said he was the right one? Of course not.

Yet that is what we do with the most powerful seats in Washington.

I am not telling you who to pick. That is your business. I am telling you that you have a right to be part of the picking.

Here is how.

You cannot vote for Speaker. But your own representative can. That man or woman works for you. Call their office. Tell them who you want leading that House, and who you do not. Tell them why. Do it before their party votes, not after.

Same with your senators. They choose the majority leader. They answer to you. Make that call too.

And ask the hard questions out loud. Who is running for these jobs? Who is backing them? What meetings have they had, and with whom? What promises have already been made in rooms we will never see?

Those questions deserve answers before January. Not after.

The next sixty days need more eyes on them than the last sixty did. During the campaign, everybody was watching. Now the signs are coming down and the ads are off the air. This is when the real business gets done. Quiet. In the back. While we are resting.

I want to rest. I earned it. So did you.

But I have lived long enough to know what happens when the people go home after the vote. The doors close. The old hands go back to work. And by the time we look up, the house has been rearranged without us.

The song is right about one thing. Life gets easier when the right people are in the house with you. When you trust who is sitting at the table. When the fire is lit and nobody is scheming in the next room.

That kind of peace is not handed to you. You build it. You keep it. You watch the door.

So light the fire. Sit down for a minute. Enjoy what the people did.

Then get back up.

Make the call. Ask the question. Say out loud who you want leading your house, and say it before the insiders decide for you.

It is a very fine house. It is ours. Let’s keep it that way.

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This post was drafted with AI governed assistance and reviewed and directed by Michael S. Faust Sr. before publication.

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