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| How can this simple man honestly represent over 700,000 people? |
It appears to me in America these days, who donates the most to a Congressional candidate, whether they live in the district or not, is who gets represented. Then a guy like me who is critical of their Congressman, well let me tell you I have written Long's office three times now and have not received a single reply.
Yesterday's census statistics for released for redistricting should tell you all you need to know. We don't have enough Congressmen in Washington. Therefore, Congressman like Billy Long can put those special people who donated the big bucks to his campaign first while ignoring both of us. This is a problem in Washington.
The numbers show Billy Long represents 721,754 people in Missouri's Seventh District. How could one man go to Washington and even attempt to voice the opinions and concerns of 721,754 people? They can't, and this is a problem that our Republic faces as the average man is left out of the whole legislative process in Washington, DC--they are overlooked for big donors and lobbyists--something Long quickly proved when he got to Washington.
Missouri's Congressional districts throughout the state shows how the average person is being shut out from being represented in Congress. Let's take a look at those numbers:
The 2010 population figures released, by district:
District 1 – 587,069
District 2 – 706,622
District 3 – 625,251
District 4 – 679,375
District 5 – 633,887
District 6 – 693,974
District 7 – 721,754
District 8 – 656,894
District 9 – 684,101
When our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, they were very specific about the number of people an elected member of the House of Representatives should represent. From Article One Section Three:
The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five and Georgia three.
So the Founding Fathers said that a Representative in Congress should represent no more than 30,000 people. That is manageable and that would keep special interest in check if it were enforced today. However, Congressmen like Billy Long are trying to manage over 20 times that, which means many people are getting shut out of the debate for special interest, lobbyist, and of course major donors. This is a problem, and considering we have 300 million plus people now living the the United States, we should have 10,000 members of Congress--not 435.
I know what you are thinking. How could we fit 10,000 members of Congress into the Capitol building? That's easy. Members of Congress could meet in smaller federal venues based on geographic locations, and propose and vote on legislation. Then based on the outcome of their votes, selected members could then go to Washington to represent these Congressmen presenting their votes to the Speaker. It's really not as hard as it sounds.
Of course the good thing about 10,000 members would be it would be a larger challenge to get things done in Washington, which would help contain big government, since it's easier to pass bills with less people than deal with 10,000 differing opinions. Since the federal government far too many times has stepped outside of the boundaries of the Constitution, this isn't a bad thing.
As long as Congressmen like Billy Long are given the task of representing over 20 times more people than what the Constitution prescribes, they are given a long leash and soon forget about the little guy that was made promises too for those who show up as the big donors on their campaign reports. So for 691,000 Southwest Missourians, Constitutionally, Billy Long probably shouldn't be your Congressman. If Billy Long really believes he is a citizen legislator like he campaigned on, then he should agree with this assessment so more citizens can be active in the process by having more access to their legislator through representation of smaller numbers.
