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Essay On The Gilded Capitol

Decent Essays

“Hey, instead of going to the office, why don’t you meet the head of the PCAR in the Capitol rotunda instead, help them out today. I think it’ll be a good learning experience.” “What’s the PCAR?” I texted back to my boss, but I moved on without an answer. It was my second year interning at a lobbying firm in my state capital, and I had started to feel like pretty hot stuff. I had originally wanted to intern at my firm because of my love for policy minutiae, but I, unexpectedly, found a kind of magic in the grimy politics of Harrisburg. My first tour of the gilded capitol, taken in the midst of a budget crisis, was illuminating. “This representative is a friend of ours, this senator is an alcoholic, that man is just using this office …show more content…

He was also a Democrat, which as we discussed their legislative strategy led me to the derisive conclusion that he was doing this to move up in the world. A press release with the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape advocating a bill to help children is the kind of thing voters, Democratic or otherwise, would adore. I asked him, politely, what his motivations for the bill were exactly. “I never want a child to go through the same thing I did and never get justice.” For the second time that day and the second time in two years, my cynicism went unrewarded. Disappointingly, our legislative strategy amounted to little more than taking a folder with information and a letter begging support from anyone that might be relevant in the legislative process. As I made my way to my first senator with a coworker, he remarked, “We’re doing this as a favor to the PCAR, no one’s going to change their vote because of a letter from a no name minority representative.” He was right of course, but I found the thought no longer sitting right with me. Unfortunately, my feelings were not shared by the secretaries of the relevant legislators. If this was a novel I’d say they slammed the door in my face, but like true politicians they took my folder and shuffled me on my way.

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