Are You Being Represented?
This fun little tool tells you how many members of Congress share your demographic(s). Selecting an answer for each of the given choices, I find that there are 28 members of Congress who, like me, are white, male, heterosexual, under 45, and hold an advanced degree. That number jumps to 242 if we exclude education status age, something that surprised me a bit did not surprise.
So… how represented are you in Congress?
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Not sure how you got 242. Just turning on the the “Under 45” filter, with no other conditions, gets it down to 74.
There’s no button for the only thing I care about, i.e. being a libertarian.Report
You’re right. I meant toggling off the Under 45 filter. Which was not surprising. I didn’t expect my age (30) to align particularly well with Congress.Report
Also: There are seven openly gay members of Congress?Report
Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ9) identifies as bisexual.Report
I find it interesting that the Guardian is going after the American market. I like them so I am not complaining but the idea of an international liberal newspaper is intriguing.
There are 36 heterosexual men under 45 with advanced degree’s in Congress.
A quick google search found that 12 members of the Senate are Jewish and 22 members of the House are Jewish. Both my Senators are Jewish. Almost all the Jews are Democratic except Bernie Sanders and the departing Eric Cantor.Report
That tool is a great idea, but I am not persuaded that they chose the important variables. The fact that someone is a straight, white, male, over 45, with an advanced degree does not mean they represent me, else I would have a lot more in common politically with a lot more of my colleagues. Hell, that would mean that Todd Akin would have been representative of me when he was in Congress!
But if we see this tool as just a starting point that could be improved, yeah, that’d be awesome.
And it’s not lost on me that being able to rail about not being represented by someone who looks a hell of a lot like me, both in skin color and what’s between our legs, may have a bit of privilege to it.Report
Agree completely. I thought it would be less identity and more substance.
(my number is 28. Was surprised that there are 50 young white men, but so many lack advanced degrees)Report
Excellent points on all ends, @james-hanley .Report
It’s worth pointing out here that when it comes to voting, women are the privileged sex, as they outnumber men in the voting-age population. If being represented by women were really that important to them, they would be.Report
“Unimportant variables” is an understatement. There is not a single one of those variables that I would use to assess whether a politician represented me. It’s (a strong word, but I mean it) evil to create a survey like this, that reinforces our pettiest, most racist and sexist tendencies. There are one congressman and two Senators who represent me. There are many who share my beliefs. There are some with similar genitalia and melanin – and if you think that matters, you don’t have any idea what it means to represent someone in Congress.Report
It’s (a strong word, but I mean it) evil to create a survey like this, that reinforces our pettiest, most racist and sexist tendencies.
Said by a member of the only demographic who can reasonably say it.Report
@pinky and others,
Thank you for your feedback. I was sloppy in my word choice here, regurgitating a lot of what came through via the link aggregator that delivered this to me. Nonetheless, the words are mine and I should have put more thought into them. I’m debating making some edits accounting for the errors you’ve pointed out, though part of me feels like I just need to have my bare ass exposed on this. Nonetheless, thank you for your constructive and enlightening criticism.Report
I think “evil” is a bit dramatic.
I doubt they were sitting in a chair, petting a white cat while making this survey.Report
How many members of Congress are, like me, openly skeptical of the existence of the supernatural? I think the answer is technically “none,” as Krysten Sinema eschews publicly categorizing herself beyond listing “none” as her religion. Although it could be as high as “ten” if both some generous interpretations are applied to that answer, and reporting on Politico.com is taken at face value, both of which are questionable propositions.Report
@burt-likko
How do you feel about us weirdo cultural Jews who are skeptical on the existence of God but still identify with Judaism because of history, tradition, ethics and philosophy? I’d bet a decent number of the Jewish members of Congress fit the philosophical-cultural Jewish category.
I admit we are the odd ducks between the atheists and the religious. A lot of atheists I know get really upset about Jews who call themselves atheist but “culturally Jewish.”Report
Well, I’m not one of them. First, I don’t get to tell someone else what they believe or how they identify. Second, while it doesn’t make much sense to me to not believe in G-d but still go to temple if only on the high holidays, I don’t have that path to walk myself, much less whatever baggage there is to carry down it, so it’s not my place to offer all that much of an opinion. Third, I happen to think Jewish culture is pretty cool.Report
To be fair, the tool doesn’t ask “Are you represented in the new Congress?” it asks “Are you reflected in the new Congress?” Futhermore, I think the caveat given states very clearly the limitations of a tool like this: “A person’s gender, race, sexual orientation, or age doesn’t necessarily mean they represent the views of a whole demographic, but lack of diversity could result in certain concerns not being heard – or not heard loudly enough.”
For the record, only one person matches my criteria — Rep. Mark Pocan (D – Wisconsin). Guess I should move.Report
You’re right, I was looking more at Kazzy’s framing than the original article. Still, it doesn’t sit well with me.Report
That tool is a great idea, but I am not persuaded that they chose the important variables
I’m pretty sure they chose variables that were easy to collate and throw up on the site, not variables that they thought were important.
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For me, it dropped to zero even before I got to enter in education.Report
Why isn’t there a category for net worth?Report
This.Report
The answer for most people is zero.Report
Because it would be too depressing?Report
I got 19. My wife got 1 hit. She also has the interesting Google property that if you search her full name in quotes, she’s the only result.
Are you sure about your results when excluding education? I see white/male/under 45/heterosexual withe education excluded returning 50 people. Looks like 242 if you keep education but exclude age.Report
Edited to correct that error.Report
Hmm, I get 0 results for “Mrs. Troublesome Frog.”Report
Why are you assuming she took his name? And “Mrs?” You’d like that, wouldn’t you, you pig?Report
😉Report
Ooh, The only congressman demographically similar to me is Jared Polis.Report
I find it interesting that a gay congressman uses his mother’s maiden name as his last name when his parents are married to each other.Report
Yeah. That’s a totally Senate thing.Report
I get zero. And they don’t even ask about trans.
(Oh, and hi everyone.)Report
I, too, got a zero.
Hi, @veronica-d good to see your voice.Report
When I scroll down to the Dem/Repub breakdown boxes, I am struck by how much I resemble the typical Republican Congress critter.Report
@michael-cain
And how does that make you feel?Report
Like I’m a living, breathing example that they might recover?
More seriously, my personal position on enough issues is out on the lunatic fringe that I’m quite sure there are no Congress critters that resemble me on policy overall, no matter how much we’re alike demographically :^)Report
It is hard to imagine there are many Congressmembers intent on breaking up the U.S. 😉Report
Yep. Start with my secession fetish and move on from there :^)Report
I didn’t realize that my rep or any rep had to exhibit the same demographics to rep resent me or anyone.Report
To resent you, it might even help if they didn’t!Report
There are two people in Congress who have the same characteristics as me on all those variables. They’re from Iowa and Alabama.Report