COLUMN: The United States Senate is embarrassing | Columns

For decades or perhaps centuries, the United States Senate has been referred to as the “world’s greatest deliberative body.” The truthfulness of that statement has always been dubious, but I believe that it has never been more untrue than at this present moment.

The Senate, as an institution, used to evoke images of high-mindedness, thoughtful debate and class. There used to be some truth to that image, but today, it is little more than a mirage. Today, the politicians who walk the halls of the Senate should only evoke one emotion in their constituents – embarrassment.

Today, many senators seem more at home in a public high school detention hall than in a legislative body. 

Take Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who will succeed Kristi Noem as Homeland Security secretary pending confirmation from his colleagues. 

On Nov. 14, 2023, Mullin was involved in a confrontation with a witness during a hearing for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The witness, International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien, had previously derided Mullin as a “Greedy CEO who pretends like he’s self-made.”

Mullin used the hearing as an opportunity to litigate his personal beef with O’Brien.

“You want to run your mouth… we can finish it here.” Mullin said.

Both men  then rose to presumably brawl in the committee room. This is when Sen. Bernie Sanders had to put an end to it like a profoundly tired substitute teacher breaking up a fight in his classroom. 

“You’re a United States Senator… This is a hearing. God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress, let’s not make it worse,” Sanders said to Mullin.

As another example, take what happened during the Senate Armed Services Hearing on March 4. During the Hearing, Brian McGinnis, A marine veteran who is currently running as the Green Party candidate for Senate in North Carolina, stood up to protest the war in Iran.

Capitol police officers then attempted to remove McGinnis from the room, and a struggle ensued. In the struggle, McGinnis’ arm got lodged in a doorway. Capitol police then attempted to dislodge McGinnis. 

It is at this moment that Montana Sen. Tim Sheehy decided that he needed to get involved, stepping down from his committee chair to enter the scrum. He grabbed McGinnis’s leg and began to pull. 

“No one wants to fight for Israel,” McGinnis shouted before his arm snapped with an audible crack. Sheehy returned to his seat, as if nothing happened. 

In a Twitter post later that day, Sheehy said he had “decided to help out and de-escalate the situation,” a remarkable thing to say after breaking someone’s arm. 

But in my opinion, no senator exudes more “kid who doesn’t want to be in school” energy than Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman.

Fetterman has, by far, the worst attendance record of any senator. By March of last year, he had skipped 18.4% of Senate roll-call votes that year, more than any other senator. 

When he was called out for his poor attendance, Fetterman defended himself by claiming his absences were due to him prioritizing his mental health, which he has openly struggled with, over the day-to-day work of a senator. 

When Fetterman does go to work, he can’t even be bothered to do the most basic things, like wearing a suit and tie, instead dresses “like a slob” in his words. 

Now, I’m not trying to shame Fetterman for struggling with his mental health. In fact, his ability to talk about his mental health is one of the few truly good things he has done as a senator, but it should be no excuse to not do the job he was elected to do. 

But the issues in the Senate go beyond a few embarrassing apples. What is more embarrassing than the senators who don’t seem to care about their jobs are the senators who think their job is to appease their party.

The Senate and Congress as a whole have become increasingly deferent to the executive branch in recent decades, a trend that has only accelerated during Trump’s second term. In my opinion, this is the natural result of senators who care more about their party winning than anything else. 

If your position on any given issue does not tow the party line, you have not performed your duties as expected by your party. This is backwards. Everywhere you go, voters detest politicians who care too much about their party over their constituents. Despite this, senators consistently debase themselves to appease their party.

Take Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who was a physician before becoming a senator. During the confirmation process for HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Cassidy expressed major concerns about RFK’s vaccine skepticism. Cassidy would ultimately tow the party line and vote to confirm Kennedy after receiving ‘assurances’ that there would be no change in government vaccine guidance. 

These assurances were, unsurprisingly, ignored by Kennedy. Cassidy has since expressed frustration with the secretary, but that can’t undo his vote that helped confirm a dangerous person to our nation’s highest public health office. 

Or what about Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who came out loudly against large cuts to America’s social safety net, particularly Medicaid cuts. 

“Slashing health insurance for the working poor… is both morally wrong and politically suicidal,” Hawley said May of last year. 

If one were inclined to believe Hawley, it would be shocking to learn that he voted for the one Big Beautiful Bill, which will cut $1 trillion in Medicaid funding over the next decade. 

As one more example of a senator debasing themselves to appease their party, let’s look at Texas Sen. John Cornyn. 

It is no secret that Cornyn is looking at a difficult primary election against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Both have been bending over backwards to secure Donald Trump’s endorsement, believing it is the key to winning the primary.  Perhaps this is why Cornyn has recently flipped his position on the Senate filibuster. 

The filibuster is a parliamentary rule that means 60 senators must vote to end debate on a piece of legislation. It essentially means that any non-budget-related legislation without 60 votes will never pass. It has long been blamed for Congress’s inability to pass substantive legislation, and has long been defended by senators like Cornyn. 

Cornyn recently penned an op-ed for the New York Post, in which he argues the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Actt is more important than the filibuster. So why the sudden flip?

Well, Trump has frequently called on the Senate to end the filibuster so his policies can be enacted more easily. Paxton has agreed with the President, even saying he would drop out of his race should Senate leadership axe the filibuster to pass the SAVE Act. 

Cornyn’s flip on his long-held support for the filibuster is an obvious attempt to appease Trump and secure his endorsement. 

So that is where many senators are. Vaccine skepticism is dangerous, unless you need me to confirm a vaccine skeptic to the cabinet. Medicaid cuts are immoral, unless you need my vote to push them forward. The filibuster is a necessary tool to fight against the tyranny of the majority, unless I really need the president’s endorsement. 

The Senate is no longer the world’s greatest deliberative body, if indeed it ever was. But I would go a step further and say that it is a stretch to even call the Senate a deliberative body at all. 

Today, the Senate is chock-full of people who can’t seem to grasp the importance of their job, people who seem annoyed to even be there, who would rather start a fight or skip votes to stay at home rather than do the hard work that should be expected of them. 

Even those who act professionally are embarrassing, as they spend most of their time as foot-soldiers in some ever-present ideological battle, willing to throw away their convictions or their constituents’ desires to tow a party line. Maybe because it’s easier to do that than to do the substantive work of drafting and voting on legislation. 

But we should be demanding a whole lot more from our senators. These are the individuals we are entrusting to represent us and to pass laws with their colleagues that improve our lives. We should be embarrassed at their seeming inability to do that and their seeming disinterest in their jobs as a whole. 

Editor’s Pick: February 2026

Photo by Justin Diep

Photo by Justin Diep

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Jackson Hatcher is a senior majoring in biological sciences with a minor in political science. You can reach him at jacksonhatcher@dailynebraskan.com.