Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
When the US system of government was established, there were no trains, buses, cars, etc. People traveled by horse and by horse-drawn carriage such as stagecoach etc. It wasn't feasible for people to go to Washington, DC, to vote. The whole idea of representative government was to send people to vote for them.
But now we have the internet. It would be trivial for people to go to a website to vote on every issue. Therefore, Washington and representative government could be construed to be obsolete. But politics probably makes it infeasible to replace it with direct democracy via internet. Representative government is entrenched, and is motivated to stay entrenched.
A good compromise, however, might be for the representatives to stay home and meet via video conferencing etc. They would stay connected to their people, instead of becoming entrenched in Washington, and no longer even living in the states they represent.
Would that compromise work? Would it be a good idea? What would it take to make it happen?
That's not why we have a representative government, however it is the reason D.C. is located where it is and the reason most older state capitals are in the geographic center of their states.
Representatives already stay home when Congress isn't in session. I get a newsletter via email every week or so from my Representative explaining why he voted the way he did on whatever bill and overall keeping us in the loop. You can communicate with them through their website.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
