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In the Ottoman Empire, Fridays were some of the busiest and were reserved for the emperor (Padishah) and council (Divan) to listen to appeals of court cases and

In the Ottoman Empire, Fridays were some of the busiest and were reserved for the emperor (Padishah) and council (Divan) to listen to appeals of court cases and the complaints of citizens. This was supposed to keep them in touch with the needs of their people and help them develop some compassion. Maybe we need some of this kind of guaranteed access to the representatives, which anyone can sign up for. No staffer-only meetings, the representative must sit through it and must fulfill a quota of X office hours per month, set according to their schedule. Each person / group gets 15-20 minutes. The hours can be cancelled up to 24 hours before for emergencies but must be made up within a week. How does that sound? I get a bit mad when people suggest that representatives don't have time for that. That's their job, damnit! Make time. This would really cut down the power of nepotism / cronyism in lobbying and bring politicians back down to earth, closer to the people they represent. Everyone should have equal access to their representative.

leaveyou 13y ago
"the representative must sit through it and must fulfill..." That sounds great. You can start lobbying for it to become law. I bet the "representatives" want to hear more of your opinions :)
NegativeK 13y ago
Even eight hours a week -- a fifth of the work week -- doesn't sound like it'd be enough time to get to all of the complaints and issues. 15 minutes per issue for eight hours (no accounting for breaks or time between) would be 32 issues. Per week. Even 40 hours a week is 160 groups, which seems pretty small given the size of the US. Lobbying and staffers exist because the time of our representatives is really limited. I think it's a really awful solution, but I'm not surprised that it exists.
- makmanalp 13y ago
  I think this is a fair point, but I'm arguing for this in addition to all the other ways we have right now, including emailing, letters and phoning, which staffers mostly deal with. The point here is to get representatives to spend face to face time with their people on a regular basis instead of the cold aggregate summary from a staffer. To make things more time efficient, you could even say than more than 5 people, with a designated spokesperson, can group together to block out an hour of time instead of making the representative hear the same issue the 5th time, and they have the benefit of being able to explain one subject in depth in an undivided manner. Today we have the most amazing transportation and telecommuting technology available to perform duties in D.C., along with staffers to help. If representatives still can't make time for their constituency, maybe we ought to rethink their work division and responsibilities. Otherwise we run the risk of having presidents who don't know the price of milk.

leaveyou 13y ago

"the representative must sit through it and must fulfill..." That sounds great. You can start lobbying for it to become law. I bet the "representatives" want to hear more of your opinions :)

NegativeK 13y ago

Even eight hours a week -- a fifth of the work week -- doesn't sound like it'd be enough time to get to all of the complaints and issues. 15 minutes per issue for eight hours (no accounting for breaks or time between) would be 32 issues. Per week. Even 40 hours a week is 160 groups, which seems pretty small given the size of the US. Lobbying and staffers exist because the time of our representatives is really limited. I think it's a really awful solution, but I'm not surprised that it exists.

makmanalp 13y ago
I think this is a fair point, but I'm arguing for this in addition to all the other ways we have right now, including emailing, letters and phoning, which staffers mostly deal with. The point here is to get representatives to spend face to face time with their people on a regular basis instead of the cold aggregate summary from a staffer. To make things more time efficient, you could even say than more than 5 people, with a designated spokesperson, can group together to block out an hour of time instead of making the representative hear the same issue the 5th time, and they have the benefit of being able to explain one subject in depth in an undivided manner. Today we have the most amazing transportation and telecommuting technology available to perform duties in D.C., along with staffers to help. If representatives still can't make time for their constituency, maybe we ought to rethink their work division and responsibilities. Otherwise we run the risk of having presidents who don't know the price of milk.