A horde of trailer-park visigoths can sack the Capitol and Republicans say "what's the big deal?" But let one guy show up in casual clothes and they lose their goddamn minds.
I get making the dress code more lax, no reason business casual should be unacceptable. And yeah, Republicunts are hypocrits as always. But are we sure about no dress code at all? People joke in this thread about congressfolks showing up in fursuits or banana slings, but how long is it until someone actually unironically tries that?
It's the same logic as school uniforms. Congressmen, you see, have the same miniscule attention spans and raging libidos as teenagers, and the only way to keep them focused for more than 30 seconds is to surround them with nothing but boring blue suits.
Seriously, I suspect it's tradition-for-tradition's-sake, no less surreal than powdered wigs. It's interesting how aside from a waxing and waning of moustaches, there isn't that dramatic of a change in looks between the portraits of Presidents and Congressmen from 1820 or 2020. I'd hope that by 2120, we have at least one fursuit Presidential portrait, along with a head-in-a-jar, and of course, the first Robot President, who was obsolete on day 1 because he had to wait til the age of 35 to get elected.
Isn't the point of school uniforms that everyone wears the same thing, there's no little Jonny in his Walmart jeans getting teased by Tarquin in his Versace.
When Jello Biafra ran for mayor of San Francisco, part of his platform was to mandate all businessmen wear clown suits between the hours of 9 am and 5 pm.
Who cares if they do? As long as they can still effectively do their job (har har yes) then what difference does it make if they wear leather daddy gear?
On the complete opposite end, people are joking about how if they want uniforms they should be wearing powdered wigs and breeches, but like, that's already a thing across the pond in the UK? The courts and house of Lords and a few other bodies have uniforms like that and yeah, there's a layer of outdated tradition, but it's also to sort of standardise how everyone looks, so that you still look like a barrister and someone to be taken seriously, regardless of age, race, gender, or looks. An equal footing sort of thing
Those costumes are only worn on the State opening of Parliament (which is kinda like Halloween for politicians) and even then only by certain people fulfilling certain ceremonial roles e.g. Black Rod.
Where wigs and gowns were a daily occurrence, until recently, was Crown Court where serious criminal trials were held. The rules changed a couple of years ago.
I'll vote for any Congress critter who promises to show up in a Randy Savage outfit on day one. I'll even move to a different voting district if I have to.