From Rebel to Realist

Bob Carr of Michigan was one of the Democratic "Watergate Babies" elected as part of the freshman class of the U.S. House in 1974. Carr was among the freshmen who toppled the seniority system that had governed the selection of committee chairs. In only the second full month of his term, he was the driving force behind a Democratic caucus resolution that once and for all cut off funding for the war in Southeast Asia. These and other initiatives led him to be branded as an unabashed liberal lawmaker. Carr went on to serve nine terms in the House, a span punctuated by an upset defeat in 1980. By the time he finished his House career, some political commentators observed that Carr had drifted from liberalism to quasi-conservatism and from rebel to Establishment man. The truth is more complicated. What can Carr's political career tell us about the 20-year period during which he served in Congress, a transit from a Democratic landslide in the House in 1974 to a shocking Republican takeover after 42 years in the House minority in 1994? And what significance do those lessons have for our political governance future?