I disagree with @Jaxk about having a representative in office. I do not and I don’t believe that he does either. When your so-called representative has, and expresses through voting, opinions that in no way reflect your beliefs or values, how can he be representing you in government. I am a liberal in a conservative state and, partly because of manipulation of voting districts, it will be a conservative state for a long time.
I have many times over the years contacted all of my representatives and senators in both state and national offices to express my concerns and opinions on matters. Not a single time have these people voted the way I think they should have. Not once. And the letters (all form letters by the way) that you get in response are extremely condescending.
The most offensive were the ones from John Cornyn, the senior senator for Texas. I don’t know who was writing them for him but they were extremely insulting, implying with very little subtlety that, while my views were “important” to him, I did not know what I was talking about; that because he had been a lawyer he was obviously smarter than I was that I and should just sit back and let Mr. Cornyn handle the business of government and not worry myself with such weighty concerns.
When I complained and told them a simple response acknowledging receipt of my view would be sufficient without all the condescending pap the responses stopped coming.
So much for my being represented.
We have the technology, perhaps it is time to think about modifying our system of representative democracy to allow direct voting on all matters with our representatives only task being to propose, discuss and write bills.
Of course we still have the problem of having the best system money can buy. The large sums of money donated by the few must be stopped, maybe with a limit of $100.00 per person, per candidate being the maximum amount that you can give and that only in races that are in your district. No outside funding allowed. And once in office this autonomy needs to be maintained. It need to come with a caveat, something basic like “you receive a paycheck from We The People, that is what you get. Anything else constitutes a bribe and will get you kicked out of office”.