Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The House of Representatives

In the movie Lincoln, the scene of the House of representatives consisting of the Republicans and the Democrats is what that cathes the attention of all the viewers most of the times. We see the parliamentary behaviour of the two parties fighting against each other having a war of words between them. Thanks to the two-party system of USA that it is spared of the antics that happen in the assembly house of a multi-party system. However we clearly understand the attitude of 'opposition for the sake of opposition' in this House.
 
When the motion for the 13th ammendment to the American constitution of abolition of slavery is being carried out there is a lot of debate that takes place in the house of representatives. The conservative Republicans are in favour of the motion while the Democrats are against the passing of the motion. People representing each of these two parties are given a chance to come to the stage and share their views and question the resolution. During this debate we see that the majority of the Democrats oppose just for the sake of opposing the ruling party's resolution though they know inside that rightfully all humans should be treated as equals and hence slavery needs to be abolsihed. Some even have a selfish motive for opposing the passing of the motion as it would affect them being in power. There's a lot of commotion when the debate is going on because people are more focused on debating on each other than the topic. Unfortunately this sets a wrong example to the people of the country.
 
To my surprise, Abraham Lincoln was not present in the House on a single occasion. Probably I am not aware about how the governance functions in USA. During these sequences in the House, we see how the senior people involved in and working with the government are present in the first floor witnessing the debate going on. These scenes give the common man a purview of what happens in the House. Do let me know what you learnt from the House of representatives sequences on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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