Nothing to Worry About

Since her election to Congress in 2018, some citizens have fretted about the supposed dangers that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez poses to the nation. In more recent weeks, other citizens have taken up a similar cry about the supposed dangers posed by Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Axios placed the two women members at the top of its list of “Mischief Makers” in the 117th Congress. The article made no distinction, saying both women (and a few others) . . .

. . . threaten to upend party unity — the theme eclipsing Washington at the moment — and potentially jeopardize the Democrats' or Republicans' position heading into the 2022 midterms.

Vox joined the discussion by noting the very important differences between the two. Greene is an extreme personality — abrasive, confrontational and defiant. But her policy opinions are in line with the rest of her party. Ocasio-Cortez is a well-mannered and orderly member with unpopular ideas. Here’s Vox:

Ocasio-Cortez promotes policy ideas that are controversial, but the sort of thing people of good faith can disagree about. You may think the Green New Deal or Medicare-for-all are bad policy, but they’re not necessarily unreasonable — ideas so absurd that believing in them is itself evidence of a kind of irrationality on the believer’s part.

Greene, by contrast, has been one of the most vocal supporters of the idea that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election, to the point where she wore a “Trump won” face mask on the House floor in early January. On her Facebook page, she has expressed far more absurd and even bigoted ideas.”

The House of Representatives removed Greene from all her committee assignments. This is a mild punishment, but not the proper punishment for a renegade member — which is censure or reprimand. Or even expulsion, which has happened five times. Greene doesn’t deserve those punishments because she hasn’t abused her Congressional office.

Whatever happens with Greene, both parties will continue to fret about the two women. They shouldn’t.

You don’t have to excuse Greene’s outrageous talk, or endorse Ocasio-Cortez’s policies to know they are nothing to worry about. Here’s why: A member of the US House of Representatives is a very small thing. It is difficult for ordinary citizens to comprehend just how small and diminished a person becomes when they become a congressman or woman.

There are, as everyone knows, 435 seats in the the US House of Representatives. In a group that size, one individual is negligible. I’ve written elsewhere that 435 is too many members for a feasible, functioning committee. Expressed as a fraction, one person in Congress is 1/435. Expressed as a decimal, it is 0.0023. Expressed as a percentage it is 0.23%.

The chart shows how big those two members are in the whole scheme of the House. At the time this is written, There are 220 Democrats plus Ocasio-Cortez, 210 Republicans plus Greene, and three empty seats. (There are nearly always vacancies in the US House of Representatives, due to deaths, prison sentences, or other causes.)

The dark blue of Ocasio Cortez and the green of Greene don’t even appear in the chart because their slices of the pie are so small.

A sharp reader might say, “Yes, each member is a small fraction of the total but some individual members are more powerful than others.” That is true. What makes a member powerful is seniority, and committee chairmanships. Neither Ocasio-Cortez nor Greene has those. Greene is among the newest class — literally at the bottom of the seniority ranking. Ocasio-Cortez has one term under her belt but is still a low-ranking member.

Ocasio-Cortez is young and pretty and eloquent. She gets interviewed a lot, because she looks good on camera and speaks well and always has something interesting to say. Many other members of Congress never get interviewed except by their hometown newspapers. Probably that annoys her enemies. Probably some of her opponents have a different idea of how an Hispanic woman ought to look and act. But one does not direct the future of the country by getting interviewed.

More proof of these members’ minor stature can be found at an excellent website called govtrack.us. That site lists ever member of the US Congress and reports what they’ve done in office, how they’ve voted, how many bills they’ve sponsored, and so on.

Greene, of course, has no record at all. Ocasio-Cortez has two years of activity to look at. What does govtrack.us say she’s accomplished?

• She co-sponsored 528 bills that were proposed by other members. Co-sponsoring does nothing to get a bill passed. It is honorific.

• She introduced 23 bills of her own.

• None of Ocasio-Cortez’s bills got bi-partisan co-sponsors.

• None of Ocasio-Cortez’s bills were enacted.

• None of Ocasio-Cortez’s bills were approved by committee (which means they were killed by committee chairmen from Ocasio-Cortez’s own party.)

• Ocasio-Cortez holds no leadership positions on committees.

These details should make it clear that Ocasio-Cortez has little influence in the the House of Representatives. The Congress runs on leadership, seniority and consensus. She doesn’t have those.

Her worst critics say Ocasio-Cortez is a danger and a menace because she does not represent typical American views. Critics who understand how the House of Representatives works say that’s OK. The more extreme her views, the less likely they are to get passed through the legislative process.

Ocasio-Cortez isn’t supposed to represent the “typical” American voter. She is supposed to represent the 14th District of New York, which is spread across the Bronx and Queens boroughs of New York City. Her district is populated by citizens with particular views. Ocasio-Cortez does her job if she represents those particular views with energy and honesty. She has no obligation to please the rest of the country.