...I’ll try to act surprised when 98% of these people are reelected (with the other 2% retiring.)
Who are the 9% that think Congress is doing a good job?
If there truly was a way to successfully keep stupid people from actually voting, then all of politics would truly be better for it, IMHO! Unfortunately, politics is truly getting worse overall instead of getting better overall, and more voters in general are truly getting dumber overall instead of truly getting smarter overall. The worsening of all political correctness on all of the issues is also proof of the continued worsening of all of politics. This ongoing trend has truly got to stop before the entire U.S. is truly turned into a third world socialistic country forever!
Now let's say we reduce the number of representatives to 100. There will be almost 2,500,000 people in each congressional district. It will be absolutely impossible for a district to share a source of income, local pride, or identity.
What you would get instead are politicians who specialize in pandering to the least common denominator. Historically, this is a measure of how much money (pork) they can return to the district. And once in office, it would be nearly impossible to get them out of office. Who could challenge a sitting senator as a fresh face in a campaaign? The success rate of people who have done this is next to nothing.
If we had smaller districts, the people in the district would actually have something in common. Whether this be an instinct for small business, or membership in the union at a large employer, smaller districts make it more difficult to eliminate the voice of the opposition when redistricting is voted. That practice, gerrymandering, results in serpentine districts whose only common interest seems to be the reelection of the occupant of that house seat when the district was drawn.
People say that congress doesn't do anything, and if there were more representatives, congress would do even less. Congress isn't supposed to do things. That's the job of the executive branch. Congress is supposed to consider what laws are needed and vote wisely when the laws of this country are increased. Who thinks we need more laws?
Finally, in a district of 600,000 people, the representative can hide from most of the constituents. He never has to talk to you. He has no reason to talk to you. He's too busy raising money to run his next campaign. The only way you can get his attention is to write a large check. This is not the way the country was supposed to be run. When a representative has 50,000 constituents, he can't hide. If he avoids his electors, they'll know. It doesn't take millions of dollars to campaign against him in the next election. It can be done by knocking on doors. A party boss who used to dole out money, endorsements, and power finds his own power diluted. A few angry towns can remove his men from the seat of power, and he, the loser, has to get a job.
Increase the number of representatives. The worst thing that can happen is the congress will never again do anything. That thought is comforting.
I've been pondering that for the last 10 minutes. Other than the military appropriations bills, I'm not sure I can think of a single thing any Congress has done over the past decade to improve life in the U.S. Anybody have any ideas?