elfs | Our country runs on elevator pitches.

I had breakfast with a Congressman this morning. He was an affable sort, willing to talk about the technicalities of his job. I asked him how he makes decisions about highly technical issues about which he knows nothing. He was a Democrat, and he had been in office for decades.

"The first year, you don't know anyone. So you try your best. Sometimes, though, since the Republicans are in charge, we might get fifteen minutes warning that a vote is about to take place, and they'll hold the floor open for only two minutes. They give their own people plenty of warning, but the rest of us have to just be present in case a vote happens.

"So you learn who on your side knows anything about anything. When a bill comes up that's their speciality, but not yours, they usually signal in advance how they'll vote. If their vote doesn't make sense to you, you have about five minutes to go over there and ask them why they voted the way they did, and make up your mind about if their decision makes sense."

The idea that someone has to make the case for whether or not a vote is sensible, about highly technical issues like infrastructure funding, nuclear power, or the risks and benefits of genetically modified organisms loose within our envirnoment, has to be made within the space of an elevator pitch is more than a little frightening. But that's the way the house is run nowadays.