How effectively are you represented in Washington?
Posted at 5:00 AM on January 25, 2011
by Eric Ringham
(32 Comments)
Filed under: Politics/Government
Cathy Wurzer of Morning Edition is in Washington today and Wednesday, looking at how power works there and what effect it has on Minnesota. Today's Question: How effectively are you represented in Washington?
Comments (32)
In a somwhat patonizing fashion. Otherwise, no.
Since our family is not among the middle or upper class our representation reflects our lack of wealth.
But their is much to be thankful. We reside outside outside the 6th district, a shameful reminder of citizenry gone awry.
National political parties and special interest money are represented in Washington. My one vote means nothing to my representatives. As an Independent they try to seem like they are listening every election cycle. But they are not.
I am not represented at all. Every last one of the key policies I personally believe in are blatantly ignored by all representatives in Washington. Let's start with health care, which will probably further fuel the flame war in the blogosphere, and I apologize for that in advance. The only problem that I can really determine (and this probably will show some ignorance of the system) with American health care is the fact that it works on the for-profit model. This strikes me as the greatest form of extortion in human history. If you happen to have the great misfortune of being born with a serious ailment, your cost of living will inevitably end up far in excess to that of someone like me who was born relatively healthy. As I understand it, one of the ways the health care law attempted to fix this is to require everyone to buy health insurance. In theory, this should increase the pool of resources available to insurance companies thus allowing them to insure everyone equitably regardless of condition. In practice, I see greed taking over and the companies artificially holding down supply to justify high premiums for everyone, milking a cash cow handed to them by the feds. The best fix for this would actually be requiring the entire medical industry to function as a nonprofit. They have proven incapable of profiting responsibly, so like a spoiled little child, it needs to have this privilege suspended until it can prove it can use it responsibly.
On the subject that rampant profiteering creates a problem for this country is the for-profit legal advocate system. This is well known and well picked on in popular culture, and is hardly worth mentioning. However, since everyone complains about it and yet no one in Washington addresses it, I can only assume that they really don't care what we think on that issue. Most of them are lawyers, and to regulate their own industry would pretty much be shooting themselves in the foot. Many of you would, at this point, point out the public defender program available to low income individuals. My response to this is the story I heard on this very station (forgive me as I do not remember exactly the date in time) which stated that the public defenders were so swamped with work that they could only spend a few minutes on each case. Someone with means could certainly buy the entire firm to spend hundreds of man-hours working on a single case.
Of course, these are only a few examples of capitalism gone wild. We all can recall the problems with the banking industry, the collapse of the auto industry, or even the explosion in the coal mine. Now, I am not nor will I ever advocate total socialization of our industries. The only ones I feel must run as non-profits are lawyers and medicine. The rest must have profit caps in place. If you profit excessively at the expense of worker safety, a cap should be put into place and your excess should be required by public mandate to be invested in safety equipment. If your company achieves record profits by keeping your employees in poverty, the surplus should be redistributed to your workers. Employers must profit responsibly, but they do not, and this get rich by any means necessary is bleeding our country dry.
Unfortunately, this rant falls on deaf ears in Washington. They don't write policy to court voters anymore. They write policy to get bribes... uh... I mean campaign contributions. Then use this money to buy mental engineering to change the minds of voters.
Sadly, very little.
No, Dave, the conservatives are neither fascists nor corporatists (the latter being a technical term referring to the idea that the populace is to be thought of as, or formed into, a unified whole). Look those terms up on Wikipedia, too. The current fad among the wacky far-right and Tea Partiers is radical libertarianism, the inevitable outcome of which is plutocracy.
Am I the only one who paid attention in high school civics?
It seems that elected officials tend to serve their donors (money!) more than their districts. I think it is time for campaign finance reform. Politicians should only be allowed to accept donations from people who actually live in their district (or in the district/state/etc that they are running in) and companies that are based in them. It just doesn't make sense to me that a politician who receives millions of dollars from political organizations, donors, and businesses that don't even operate in MN could claim to represent the people that actually live here.
I thank the good Lord each and every day that my representative forgets to represent me and my district in order to follow her own path.
--Sixth District
I don't feel I could be better represented in Washington if I was there my self. Tim Walz, Amy Klobuchar, and Al Franken are great public officials that pay attention to their electorate and move forward with legislation to help them...I couldn't be happier
Stoled the election clark? Now who's whining?
Living in the 6th District, I am not represented well by the current occupant of the House Seat in Washington (I can't even bear to use this person's name). This person is more interested in drawing attention to herself by the outrageous statement she continually is making and cozying up to the right-wing talk media. The people in this district who think she represents them well are living in a dream world.
As a Republican moderate in the 3rd district, I am happy with Eric Paulsen. Keith Ellision is clueless but perhaps that is the environment when half your voters are on food stamps. Franken stole the election so he has no credibility for 50.1% of the state. I wish the far left liberals would find another place to locate, as I am tired of their constant whining.
As a liberal to liberal-centrist Minneapolite, I feel extremely well represented by Keith Ellison's liberalism combined with Al Franken's centralized liberalism and Amy Klobochar's liberalized centrism.
Its a shame that the whole state is so closely divided that both senators are all but guaranteed to require ballot counts in their next reelection bids, and that the state is so steeply divided ideologically that I'll likely find the Republican alternatives sheerly unpalatable.
Since I'm not a billion dollar multinational corporation able to make millions in campaign donations every election... not very well.
I live in the 6th district. So unless everyone who lives there is a proven liar, our U.S. representative does not actually represent any of us. She's more interested on being on TV, spreading lies, falsely accusing people, and being drooled over by Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly than actually doing anything productive in Washington.
Thankfully, though, we have some great senators, who actually put their noses to the grindstone and work for us. You rarely see either of them on TV and both have introduced and passed important, popular legislation within the past year. Kudos to them for knowing the reason they were hired!
Careful Steve, if those that throw the word socialism around with no actual understanding of its meaning start to educate themselves they may realize that their “conservative” views are nothing more than fascism. And what they think is capitalism is actually corporatism. This country was bought and paid for with their ignorant blood long ago. And those in power use fascist rhetoric like gay marriage, abortion and gun rights to control their constituents. Rights and freedom only are for those on their side, welfare is only for the well-to-do and corporations, and all the scientist are wrong and liars because Jesus wants them to drive a giant SUV. Even though Jesus didn’t even own a camel.
I think Bob's comment below about a "corpocracy" is dead-on.
First off, I live in a conservative area with a conservative congressman, so I have no expectation that my concerns would be considered by him.
More telling is the following real-life example. When TV stations went from analog to digital I was afraid I would no longer be able to receive certain stations. I installed a converter box. Sure enough, some of the stations I used to watch no longer reached my house. I wrote Amy Klobuchar about it, telling her how even with a converter box, the old technology was better than the new improvements. She wrote me back to say I should get a converter box.
That whole digital TV technology was billed as a necessity so that first responders could more quickly respond. First. As a side note it was mentioned that, possibly, cell-phone companies might get some kind of tiny benefit too, it just so happened.
That may sound like a ridiculously trivial item to bring up, but it illustrates the point about a corpocracy. The big corporate interests got what they want, whereas my letter to my elected representative wasn't even carefully read.
Get a converter box? Seriously? That's your best? Really?
No they're not, Gary F, and to say they are is a lie. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism.
I question if I am well represented in congress. Both the senators are of the liberal side and seem to follow the leadership of Reed and our president. I don't feel either senator is able to make an independent decision. My Congressman is Tim Walz, another liberal attempting to represent a rural population that is primarily conservative. He also followed Pelosi, who was one of the worst House Leaders we have had for some time. I am not happy at all with our present people representing me in Washington.
On most counts, I feel I am well represented in Washington. Our Senators have proven to be both productive and populist with their representation. Both Senators stick to their platform, and stand for important things that set Minnesota apart: support for education, environment, local economic growth and veteran affairs. I'm thankful that Senators Franken and Klobuchar stand up for these important issues.
My Representative, however, is none of this. Using a shrill, obstructionist, inflamatory, inappropriate and misleading methodology has not represented me well in Washington. Bachmann's announced interest in the Presidency demonstrates that she is not focused on representing her district, but rather that she wants to pander to the extremities of the Conservative movement. Her repeated misleading statements, coupled with uneducated proposals to reduce the deficit only make things worse. I cannot feel well represented by a person that pushes misinformation.
I feel fairly well-represented by my senators, but my representative (Michelle Bachmann) is more and more engaged in her presidential run for 2012. Additionally, she's simply an embarrassment. She is not in touch with what it is government does (infrastructure, social net, etc.), and is much more concerned with how best to curry the favor of the politically powerful.
Looking over the comments of other respondents, I feel very fortunate. My Congress person is Betty McCollum, who has done a good job representing my interests and the interests of the middle class, the working poor, and the most vulnerable in our society. The harm that the House of Representatives is poised to inflict upon ordinary Americans comes entirely from Republicans and conservative Democrats.
As for the Senate, Franken has already experienced a lot of legislative success, and has proven himself to be a scrappy fighter for us. Klobuchar is an excellent mediator. I don't agree with everything the two senators have done, but they have already proven themselves in the Senate.
I do NOT feel I am represented in Washington. Lobbyists and showy sexy issues get air time, not real people, real issues.
I am a semi retired, accountant, professor and author. I want a voice for my views not AARP, not education lobbyists, not the business CEOs.
I am a homeowner, active in the community without power or influence, I am NOT asked and not heard.
Too bad, I have a lot to offer and am under utilzed.
Not well at all. My two Senators and my Representative, Betty McCollum are all committed socialists.
I am not effectively represented in Washington. As a resident of the 6th district my representative is a compulsively lying, corporate shill with delusions of being the first woman president. I wish she would spend less time pandering to the medical and insurance industries, and spouting republican rhetoric and start doing what is actually right for the people of this state. Unfortunately I think she has convinced herself that the rhetoric and lies she continually tells are the truth. She jumped on the bogus “tea party” horse and hijacked it to use it as a platform to spout more of her rhetoric. She actually offers no concrete ideas on how to help the economy and create jobs. All she says is to lower taxes (for the rich) and have a smaller government, but offers no suggestions on to how to actually accomplish it.
Wake up people of the sixth district! We can do much better than this. There is more pressing matters that actually affects all of us then abortions and gun rights!
Since we live in a corpocracy, not a democracy, large commercial interests get lots of representation, while individual citizens get virtually none. It's all about the Benjamins.
I do not feel like I am well represented in either the House or Senate. Congress has been hijacked by special interest groups and lobbist. Our representatives need to address the needs of "main street" not those of big financial institutions, labor unions who hoist productivity sapping rules on businesses, and the wealthy contributors to their relection.
Our representatives waste precious time jumping for sound bites. For example when the Northwest plane over shot the Twin Cities, Senator Klobachar was quick to go on the air and proclaim she would get to the bottom of this. Senator Klobachar I do not want you looking into this sort of thing. We have a very competent government agency well positioned to "look into this". I want you addressing taxes on the middle class, reducing unemployement, curbing the excesses of wall street, and getting serious about renewable energy and climate change.
Mark Twain's observation still holds: we have the best Congress money can buy. I'll never be the highest bidder.
Many years ago, a staff person in Rep. Gil Gutknecht's office told me that they sometimes didn't even bother to open the mail from Northfield, since the town is too "liberal." We are now in the district of Rep. John Kline, and things are not much better. I am certain they open the mail, since the form letters I receive from Kline's office are nominally related to the issues I write about, but his staunch party-line record does not reflect my concerns.
I do not feel that I am represented in Washington by my congresswoman. She does not listen to all of the people in her district that she represents. I do feel that the two Minnesota senators represent the people of Minnesota and are willing to listen and help with problems.
I believe if I had an individual/personal issue that I needed help with, my Congressman or Sen. Klobachar or Sen. Frankin would help. In larger issues, individuals don't mean a thing, it is what does the PARTY wants and if you agree with the party, good for you. Our Govt. leaders do NOT listen to the American people in, only what a group of legislators want.
I don't think individual legislators have much impact on Washington. As it happens, my Congressman has little seniority and belongs to the minority party. He has no influence on events. And the senate exists mostly to stop things from happening, a job it is really excellent at. As far as I am concerned, at this point in history, the only thing that matters in senate elections is how the candidates will vote on Supreme Court nominations.,
With the Citizens United case, in a few years Washington will be a wholly owned subsidiary of international corporations. Quite frankly, it's time to stop spending time and effort on the losing battle of trying to do anything on the federal level, and focus instead on state government where regular people can still have an impact on events.
I'm not. As an expat family living in Hong kong we pay US federal income taxes without reprentation. Our presidential votes are not counted toward the electoral college as I do not reside in a US State, and for the same reason I am not represented by any local congressmen.
It is very frustrating, growing up believing in the system, trusting that there was truly no taxation without representation, and being so let down. I sincerely hope the rest of the country can make wise choices since my vote is essentially null.
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