"Congress is functioning the way the Founding Fathers intended-not very well. They understood that if you move too quickly, our democracy will be less responsible to the majority"
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Beneath the civics-class reverence for “the Founders” sits Conable’s dry confession: gridlock isn’t a bug in the American system, it’s part of the product. The line lands because it borrows patriotic language to defend an unpatriotic feeling most voters recognize in their bones - that Congress often looks broken. Conable flips that frustration into reassurance, then immediately undercuts it with a sly aside: “not very well.” It’s a politician’s way of telling the public, Yes, you’re seeing what you’re seeing, and no, don’t expect it to change.
The intent is protective. Conable, a Republican congressman from New York who served through the post-Watergate era and the institutional churn of the 1970s and 1980s, is arguing for friction: committees, bicameralism, veto points, slow consensus. In his framing, speed is dangerous not because it risks mistakes, but because it risks majoritarianism - policy that tracks public opinion too directly, too quickly, too crudely. That’s the subtext: the system is designed to dilute “the majority,” not merely to represent it.
Calling that “more responsible” is the rhetorical sleight of hand. Responsibility here doesn’t mean responsiveness; it means restraint, a bias toward stability and minority protection, and a suspicion of political passions. It’s also a gentle rebuke to reformers who promise efficiency in government: efficiency is what the Constitution was built to prevent. Conable’s wit works because it admits the cost of that restraint - stagnation, horse-trading, delay - while insisting the cost is the point.
The intent is protective. Conable, a Republican congressman from New York who served through the post-Watergate era and the institutional churn of the 1970s and 1980s, is arguing for friction: committees, bicameralism, veto points, slow consensus. In his framing, speed is dangerous not because it risks mistakes, but because it risks majoritarianism - policy that tracks public opinion too directly, too quickly, too crudely. That’s the subtext: the system is designed to dilute “the majority,” not merely to represent it.
Calling that “more responsible” is the rhetorical sleight of hand. Responsibility here doesn’t mean responsiveness; it means restraint, a bias toward stability and minority protection, and a suspicion of political passions. It’s also a gentle rebuke to reformers who promise efficiency in government: efficiency is what the Constitution was built to prevent. Conable’s wit works because it admits the cost of that restraint - stagnation, horse-trading, delay - while insisting the cost is the point.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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