BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON

“A man has gotta have hope.”

“…the dysfunctionality of the U.S. Congress is erasing hope for the men and women of this country who are struggling…”

The first quotation comes from a man who lives in Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s district in Missouri, the old stomping grounds of Harry Truman. The second is Cleaver’s, embedded in one of the most thoughtful speeches in the House of Representatives I’ve heard in a while.

I don’t know much about Emanuel Cleaver, but I was touched by his remarks on the Floor of the House Thursday, December 1. When I grow weary of the noise and intellectual numbness of Fox or CNN, I turn to C-Span for relief and it’s usually worth the channel flipping. It was again on this day.

He said what we all know. There is a growing crisis in this country. It is a separation of the people from their government. It is a crisis of governance. It is the inability of our leaders to distinguish between the perception that they are governing and the reality that they are not. It is the misconception that getting elected is a means to an end and not the end in itself.

Congressman Cleaver says it well, just click on the words listen here…listen here.

Editor’s Note: Mike Johnson is a former journalist, who worked on the Ford White House staff and served as press secretary and chief of staff to House Republican Leader Bob Michel, prior to entering the private sector. He is co-author of a book, Surviving Congress, a guide for congressional staff. He is currently a principal with the OB-C Group.