For members of Congress, home matters most

Roots define us. They give us a sense of who we are, where we feel most comfortable. Home is where the heart is. It’s the most important place, especially for a politician.

{mosads}Where we’re from never leaves us. When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) criticized Donald Trump’s “New York values,” it struck a nerve that Cruz tried to explain away. Wisely, Trump used the Cruz comment to his advantage, saying to his fellow New Yorkers a phrase they understood: “He thinks we’re no good.” That “no good” language was understood by New York voters — and they voted for one of their own, New Yorker Donald Trump. 

When I get to Priest Lake, Idaho or Spokane, Wash., I know I’m home. They’re places that hold lasting memories, borne of childhood, that never disappear. When my wife of 39 years visits her South Carolina home, she’s in familiar territory, a place that stirs in her family memories, allowing her to revisit sacred places of her past. Politicians, especially, experience such a return. Ever wonder why Ronald Reagan, John Kennedy or George W. Bush traveled to California, Massachusetts or Texas, as they respectively did? We grumble when the Obamas travel so expensively to Hawaii, site of the president’s youth; it’s because that’s probably where his heart is. It’s home for him.

Home should be the most important draw for a politician. Yes, those who serve in Congress are understandably enamored with our nation’s capital, but their first allegiance should be to those who sent them to serve. The most important “lobbyists” to an elected official are the voters back home. Officials should always listen to them first, not paid advocates who grace the halls of Congress. Being an elected official in Washington can be intoxicating. Lots of residents there cater to the wishes of elected officials, making them think they’re particularly special. If one isn’t careful, members of Congress start believing their importance. That’s not to say members aren’t important. Knowing it is one thing; letting others know you know it is another.

When one former House member lost a Senate race in 1992, he was devastated. Unsure of his role out-of-office, he struggled for a time. That’s why having a sense of home, of who you are out-of-office as well as in-office, is so important for elected officials. And that’s why spending time at home, around people who knew you before you became “important,” is so critical to self-perception.

But it all starts with having a sense of one’s roots, and appreciating the values that are part of one’s soul. Those values define us and give us perspective. They should never be lost. And it’s up to voters back home to be sure they’re not.

Returning home to be around longtime friends, the ones who knew you before you were elected, is essential to sound public service, assuming the friends are of high quality. And most of us have such friends, ones who would be let down if you let them down in your public service. The late former Sen. Ted Stevens (R) spent most of his life as an Alaskan, a place he called home. He returned there often, taking counsel from his old friends.

It’s been said that home is the place where one wants to be buried. But home is more than that. It’s the place where you can revisit your grade school, the high-school athletic field where you might have played, the places you walked with friends, the places of past family outings, the places where you grew up. Those places never leave us. They’re embedded in our souls. They define us in a warm and comforting way.

Public service is important and necessary in today’s complex world. And we desperately need our best people to run for office and serve their communities. That’s why the Constitution, in outlining the qualifications for Senate and House candidates, required that candidates have lived in the areas they seek to represent. Home was deemed important by our Founders. They saw value in the values that elected officials would bring to Congress; values that were borne of community connections, familiarity with voters and the issues of importance to those at home.

The Founders envisioned a legislative amalgam, consisting of members from all walks of life congregating to make the best policies for a diverse nation, representing many points of view and reflecting what each member knew about the most: home.

Nethercutt is a former U.S. representative from Washington state, serving from 1995 to 2005.