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Devil's advocate: That same networking also makes it drastically easier for a single representative to network with a larger constituency.
by jdmichal 9y ago
Devil's advocate: That same networking also makes it drastically easier for a single representative to network with a larger constituency.
- crankylinuxuser 9y agoFair enough. I'd like to see that there is an effective communication going on between citizens and their representatives. Right now, with the current system, I see a few ways to communicate. Physical letter: form letter or nothing Phone: automated system recording Email: form letter or auto-subscribed to email list Facebook: Ignored, form statement, or banned Twitter: Ignored, form statement, or banned What I do see that works is what lobbyists do: they have face-time with their legislators. The current contention rates of up to 500k people per representative makes that avenue nearly impossible currently. Unless you happen to get a glimpse at a talk, you have close to 0% chance of talking with your rep. With a contention ratio of 30k to 50k/rep, would make meeting your representative much more likely. It would also reduce money effects, since now elections are a local thing instead of a moneyball contest.
- jdmichal 9y agoAs I said, that was definitely a devil's advocate position, and on this I very much agree with you in principle but not on approach. The approach I would rather see is to devolve power the federal government has managed to aggregate back down to the states, and hopefully even more local levels. I've commented on this before; I'll just link those instead of repeating myself: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11966167#11969956 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11966167#11969956 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12530363#12532344 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12530363#12532344