General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: NYT: "Cancel the Midterms". Do you agree? [View all]Proud Public Servant
(2,097 posts)People keep pointing to the corrupting influence of money in politics (as if that's something new), but that's only a subset of the real problem: the permanent campaign. Enacting the most stringent campaign finance reforms in the world wouldn't stop Congressmen from spending the lion's share of their terms focusing on their own re-election rather than constituent needs.
But if you REALLY want to fix the problem, you also need to find a way to reduce the number of people represented by each Congressman. The average Congressional district has gone from 40000 persons in 1814 to 215,000 persons in 1914 to about 750,000 persons today; there's no way the Founders envisioned a functioning republic in which a single person represents 3/4 of a million people, and it's no wonder that Congress is out of touch under those circumstances. Something's got to give.