“I Want To Be In The Room Where It Happens”

-Valerie Cella | Emory University 2022

On the eve of our nation’s Declaration of Independence, my family viewed Hamilton on Disney+. As music filled the room with hope and moved us to action, I could not help but repeat the lyrics “I want to be in the room where it happens.” At the time, I disregarded the lyric’s relevance. I pushed the thought back into my unconscious leaving other worries to preoccupy the space. But when the dust of July 4th settled, I woke up with the lyric consuming me.

“I want to be in the room where it happens.”

I don’t know about you, but I certainty do. Our government was established to increase transparency, representation, and access. Yet, centuries later we struggle to relate to the elites that run our country an unbalanced sense of regard. The current establishment looks to us as a filled-in bubble, a statistic, rather than a person. The frustration of identity politics fuels our elections, but that is a topic for another day.

Nevertheless, to increase transparency on the current nation’s political business proceedings, our politicians have tried to text the world through Twitter and share Instagram stories walking to Congress, but the fabrication of relation is shared with a sense of performance.

A facade to reach out to voters. An invitation to a closed door.

And so, we remain stuck in the threshold of a governing body’s decisions, pushed with the hip politicians’ boastful Instagram posts praying it appeases the masses. But the rising Gen Z sees through the fabricated social media mist to further decrease transparency of the whole story.

The upcoming generation learns, sees, witnesses a world from a first person view. If Snap chat stories of world events can place you in another’s shoes, then where are the daily first POV’s from the White House or Congress. If the Hamilton’s cast can post Instagram stories to open up the economically exclusive musical while backstage in-between scenes, then where is the same effort to bring further transparency to the daily proceedings of our nation’s foundation.

The nation adored the Obama’s on a personal level, for they opened the White House to the people regardless of personal opinion. Even if “they had to arrange the meeting. They arranged the venue, the seating.” They let us glimpse into the room where it happened through: the numerous interviews with the media, late night talk show hosts, the Instagram stories, the genuine connection of dodge ball tournaments, the Dad jokes on Thanksgiving Day. Their presence evolved as we grew – to witness a leadership that promoted social connection in the small ways they could via social platforms showed a potential of future connection beyond compare.

Although, of course, our government proceedings must remain in part secret for security reasons, and Trump’s current use of Twitter could classify as “transparency”. I argue the consistent 3 words “Law and Order” tweets are incomparable to public interaction made by past President’s and First Lady’s.

Meanwhile, the nation’s youth continue to seek for a form of relatable interaction. We look to our younger leaders on both sides for clarity and reality. If you are Conservative, you may tune into Madison Madison Cawthorn’s quest for Congressional Office. If you are Democrat, you may tune into Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s or Ilhan Omar’s daily Instagram Live stories. Either way, knowing history has its’ eyes on our coming moments, Generation Z looks not to the muggy past but to a clearer future that will only be brightened through social media’s ability to provide insight on our expansive country. Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook. Social Media will illuminate our nation’s proceedings directly shared by the people we elect. If candidates cannot keep up with the youth. If they cannot share. If they cannot relate. If they cannot become an internet celebrity of some sorts. I feel our generation and succeeding generations will leave them behind.

“Law and Order” can be written on a foggy glass, but the glass still not cleared… Some politicians can become memes on Instagram asking for support, but most take no effort to show us they’ll “do whatever it takes to get their plan on the Congress floor.”

As of now, political decisions that legislate our nation’s future are made over dinner. Yet, we have to just assumed that it happens, cause no one was in the room where it happens.