By Michael Dementjevs, Staff Writer

With the recent move by the House of Representatives to ban the social media app TikTok, I find myself stuck trying to piece together a difficult puzzle. The basis of this puzzle lies within the fact that the people we have elected to represent us in Congress have focused their time and energy into banning an app that has more than 150 million U.S. users rather than focusing their legislative power on the issues that are plaguing the American people. I don’t want to get into why TikTok is being banned; rather, I am most concerned about the function of Congress. 

When we get into the discussion about American politics, we often hear about how the passage of bills is a long and slow process — some of you may remember the “I’m Just a Bill” song from Schoolhouse Rock which details this grueling process. The most significant part of this process is the members debating the bill. These debates show how passionate the members of Congress feel about a certain bill and whether or not they support or oppose it. This is the part that usually gets the most attention from the public. However, there is a general perception that the debates are holding up this critical stage of voting the bill from one chamber into the other, and eventually onto the president, who will either veto or sign it into law. 

This is the rhetoric we are used to hearing when we get into political discourse about the function of our government — especially when both Democrats and Republicans keep on pushing this perception when debating on either the House or Senate floor. Even more recently, a bipartisan Senate bill regarding immigration control at the US/Mexico border is being stalled in the House with endless debates and no sign of agreement. But as for this TikTok ban, 352 House representatives voted in favor whereas 65 voted against. We never see this wide of a margin for a bill within the House, especially divisive bills in regard to domestic and international policy, but when it comes to potentially banning TikTok, both parties are willing to work together to vote in support of it. 

It seems we have come to a point in American politics where we cannot take our Congress seriously, which is particularly troubling in an election year. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA., spoke on the House floor stating, “This is not an attempt to ban TikTok, it is an attempt to make TikTok better. Tic-Tac-Toe, a winner” — showing just how out of touch our representatives are, even in trying to make a clever pun that failed to land harder than Kevin McCarthy’s political career. We even have Representative Jeff Jackson, D-NC, who uses TikTok as a platform to inform viewers on the issues concerning the House, voting in favor of the bill despite him using TikTok as benefit to not only himself in gaining exposure as a freshman representative, but also educating both his constituents and the American public in giving transparency on what is occurring in the United States Congress. 

For Americans to progress with a government that we view as not answering what we need in order to function as a country, we need to hold our representatives accountable. While I am not implying that we should not trust our politicians, I think we should adopt a healthy skepticism when listening to what our politicians are saying. We elect our representatives from across the U.S. to represent our interests, not the interests of themselves who, when they start to show their true colors, lose the public’s trust.