Cleo Fields talks about his decision not to seek a second term in Congress. Photo credit: Andrew Greenstein
In announcing that he will not seek a second term in his second stint in Congress, Cleo Fields noted that a lot has changed since the first time he served on Capitol Hill, and not for the better.
Fields said when he served in the House for the first time from 1993 until 1997, Fields said while debates were certainly fierce, lawmakers were actually willing to listen and appreciate opinions from the other side of the aisle.
“(Then-Speaker) Newt Gingrich, for example, we fought like tooth and nail about free lunch program,” Fields said. “He’s like, ‘Man, look, it’s the parents’ responsibility to provide lunch for the kids,’ until he really understood my story.”
Furthermore, Fields said representatives from opposite parties were actually cordial towards one another.
“The last time I served in Congress, Democrats and Republicans fought on the floor,” Fields noted. “But they went out after the floor debate, and they had dinner. Any met with their families together.”
Of course, on the day Fields left Capitol Hill the first time, there was no such thing as Facebook, X was merely the 24th letter of the alphabet, and Donald Trump was seven years away from launching “The Apprentice” on NBC.
Times have changed, and Fields says so has Congress in the 28 years he had been gone.
“Today you will not see a Democrat and a Republican sitting having dinner, or lunch or a cup of coffee,” Fields said. “And I think that has to change.
“The partisanship has gone beyond the floor of the house,” Fields continued. “It’s now in the families, it’s in the communities, and folks are talking at all.”
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