Article DetailsSpending Time with Constituents | ||||||
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 Marketing agencies and actuaries have become amazingly good at slicing and dicing the American people into groups where they can predict their behavior. They know how to persuade a man to buy antiperspirant, or show a child which toy they should tell their parents to buy for them. They can convince you which drugs would be good for your health, or which car you would look best driving. Could we apply this to politics in a positive way? In the House of Representatives each represents about 650,000 people. What if we were to create a statistical sample of about 1000 people from their district for each representative. It would represent race, gender, religion, origin, economic status, etc. This representative would then be required to spend 30 minutes talking to each of the 1000 people each year. We have this problem with all these lobbyists who clearly dominate the time or our representatives, but the real question is... Do these lobbyist accurately represent the constituents? I think most of us would agree the answer is absolutely not. Wouldn’t this be a great addition to our Democracy if our reps were required to spend a majority of their time talking to a sample of people that is most like the people they represent? | ||||||
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David DuVal
Wednesday 25th of May 2011 10:52:14
Yes, and we need to MAKE them listen to people like you and me. In old times they represented fewer people and they had to go back home and face them. Now they don't. We should develop ways to make sure they talk to a true sample of people that they represent. 
Kathleen Young Roby
Wednesday 25th of May 2011 06:50:16
Yes! We choose them to represent us so they certainly should be more in touch with us!
David DuVal
Wednesday 25th of May 2011 10:49:32
And their job is to represent ALL their constituents, not just the few business people and lobbyist that hang around their offices. 
Harry Pierce
Wednesday 25th of May 2011 06:54:29
Scumbags I would say... on both sides of the transaction! One side screws us with corporate funded "influence" and the other screws us by pushing that "influence" into law/legislation.... you MOFO's give "democracy" a bad name...^^. 
Debra Cusick
Wednesday 25th of May 2011 06:59:04
the irony is that all of those marketing studies and "scientific indicators" are B.S. because they ignore and cannot predict the human (or humane) factors which are both fickle and subject to change as one variable does. If people learned to first hear their hearts and then listen to them, we wouldn't need all of this crap.
David DuVal
Wednesday 25th of May 2011 10:48:44
What I was getting at is the representatives spend more time talking to people who are not their constituents, and we should try to change the system to make sure they do more often. Instead we have the townhall meetings. They are a start but we need to do better.
David DuVal
Wednesday 25th of May 2011 10:50:13
And Harry, that is why both sides have a distorted view. They don't talk to real people like you and me nearly enough. 
Drew Schaefer
Wednesday 25th of May 2011 11:15:05
And/or? Legislation requiring TWO hours of 'constituent reunions' for every SINGLE hour spent with a Lobbyist?
David DuVal
Wednesday 25th of May 2011 11:26:04
And wow, this is a record number of comments for an article on this website. I am happy. :) If you want a website just like this of your own, I'm not only giving them away for free, I am paying people to take one (believe it or not). We are just fine tuning the software.
Debra Cusick
Wednesday 25th of May 2011 11:17:00
David: Don't you think the media is message enough (not that I agree in any way with Marshall McLuhan). These people all have Facebook pages, twitter accounts and personal web pages, and I know from reading tons less than I hope they do, that the voices of the people will reach them loud and clear. If they cared, they'd respond to fans and anti-fans alike and address their questions and concerns. I have written my congressmen and governor sincere letters, and all I get in return are pre-written form letters, many of which don't even address the issues I raise, and all, of course, rationalizing that "I will do what I think is best for the people of Indiana." The least he can say is "I will represent what the majority of my constituents elected me to do." These people are so self-aggrandized and ego bound that they don't care what those who elected them have to say. And, they have played their collective hand, especially in the Midwest. Today, 40 conservatives voted to eliminate Medicare as we know it, attempting to turn it into a voucher program. If your statistics ring true, those 40, spoke for 260,000,000 of their constituents! Could it be? I find that scary and appalling. And, I will add that I have tried to talk to them. I tried earlier on McHenry's Facebook page, where most expressed my sentiments, and only a couple people said things like, "Great job! Thanks for putting Elizabeth Warren in her place." In her place? The video doesn't lie. This person absolutely made a fool of himself, as did the person who congratulated him. In this case, there is no talking, only mud slinging. As an experiment, I very politely asked the respondent to please clarify how he thought McHenry had put Warren in her place and what she had said or done to deserve his comments. Of course, the person never responded. When I have engaged "friends" in person, they basically say to me the same things I would say to them: The democrats will BK the country; they need to think about the PEOPLE; Wall Street will fix itself, and we HAD to go to war in the Middle East, to prevent terrorism. My favorite Republican line is "I don't want to talk about it," whenever they feel cornered our beat. I am frustrated, but I will be in line (with what I anticipate will be MANY frustrated people on voting day.
David DuVal
Wednesday 25th of May 2011 11:23:44
Bear in mind Debra that you see more than many people do because you study the issues. That means that if you can put your thoughts together into words that are inspiring, you can help others to understand. And it starts by understanding where some of these people get their ideas. Then you are better equipped to help. I wrote a little on this topic too if you have time to read a couple of paragraphs http://www.businessplexus.com/articles/a-desire-to-understand-43558.htm | ||||||
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They don't give a rat's ass about what their constituents want. They suck up worse than Eddie Haskel to get elected and then do what the lobbyists pay them do say and do. Ehem... the secret is out.