{"id":701,"date":"2015-03-26T19:12:36","date_gmt":"2015-03-26T19:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=701"},"modified":"2015-10-13T18:59:45","modified_gmt":"2015-10-13T18:59:45","slug":"47-senators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2015\/03\/26\/47-senators\/","title":{"rendered":"47 Senators: Cultural Performance and Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

In March 2015, 47 Republican Senators signed a letter<\/a>, authored by Sen. Tom Cotton and addressed to \u201cthe Leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran.\u201d In what the New York Times <\/em>called<\/a> a rare direct congressional intervention into diplomatic negotiations, the cosigners warned Iran that any agreements they may negotiate with President Obama\u2019s administration would not have lasting power, because the U.S. Constitution grants the power to ratify treaties to Congress alone and Obama will leave office in 2017. Most political commentators were surprised by this senatorial foray into sensitive diplomatic affairs; even many conservatives have expressed concern about how the letter might affect negotiations regarding Iran\u2019s nuclear weapons program. But there are good sociological reasons to believe that the cosigners\u2019 goals have little to do with Iran.<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Alexander argues that social actors, including political parties, develop \u201cpower narratives of civil repair\u201d to redefine social groups. The GOP Senators\u2019 invocation of the Constitution can be understood as an attempt \u201crepair\u201d the damage to America\u2019s international standing they believe Obama has done. In this view, the letter is more a nationalistic statement about who defines what America is than a diplomatic maneuver—a cultural performance intended to grant legitimacy to future political goals.<\/h5>\n