Unhappy with Congress?

You could do something about it, but chances are, you won't. Why? Well, because you're probably not unhappy about your Congress-man or -woman. Why? Well, because for decades both parties have used and abused a little trick called gerrymandering.

Gerrymandering is the process by which Congressional districts are drawn (and re-drawn) in an attempt to ensure the re-election of the incumbent. Once someone is in, their party wants to make sure they stay there. There are several reasons for desiring seniority - better committee assignments, more appropriations, more donations, and so on. Basically, more seniority equals more money for the incumbent and the incumbent's party. Seniority garners power, prestige, position, and pay (or for the cynics in the audience - payola).

When a district has been gerrymandered effectively, the majority of voters in the district can be counted on to vote in reliably predictable ways. That is, the district will almost assuredly remain a stronghold of a particular party's defined constituency. From a political strategy perspective, each district has a well-defined identity with a prototypical constituent. Find a candidate that closely matches the prototype's ideals and you can control that seat in Congress for a very long time.

The make up of Congress then becomes a self-perpetuating machine. Your representative is there because a majority of voters in the district voted for them. A majority voted for them because the voters in the district have been carefully aggregated into as near a bloc as is possible. Changes in who holds the Congressional seat happen in 3 ways: the representative gives up the seat for some other position (a run for governor, the Senate, private sector job, Cabinet appointment, retirement, etc); a shift in the district's demographics occurs causing a basic shift in the electoral mathematics (may cause the seat to go to the other party); the representative is defeated within his or her own party for not "representing the majority" (the representative became too liberal or too conservative or angered voters on some special issue).

You may think Congress is a mess, but you are probably not able to see what part of the mess your representative contributes. That's because you'd have to admit which part of the mess you're contributing. Self-reflection as voters is not something at which we excel. We continue to believe that we voted correctly, but that other people in other districts didn't. It's someone else's fault. Not ours. So, we get mad at Congress and lash out. Our representative feels just like we do and would fix everything if only "those other people" would help a little.

We could fix the problem if we had the will to do so. How? We could set "rational" district boundaries, make them static, and only allow them to change once every 50 years or something. Very blunt instrument sort of idea. Of course, neither party would like that idea. Special interest groups wouldn't like that idea.

The Constitution calls for "the number not to exceed one for every thirty thousand", but each state got at least one. When the U.S. population was smaller, there were more representatives per capita than there are today. Today, there are 435 voting members in Congress. There are roughly 350,000,000 residents of the U.S. That means, there is a representative for about every 800,000 folks. Imagine what would happen (OMG!) if there was a representative for every 400,000 or 100,000 or 50,000. As a point of reference, in 1960 the 86th Congress, had 437 members in a total U.S. population of 180,000,000. Proportionately, if Congress were twice the size it is currently, we'd be in the ballpark of 1960 representation.

I have no idea if that would be better or worse. Many people think Congress was great in 1960 and not great now. Are representatives over worked nowadays?

The bottom line is that Congress is what it is because we are who we are. Nothing more, nothing less. Fixing Congress is within our power because we can vote differently.  Problem is - we won't do that, probably. Fixing Congress is not within our power because membership has its privileges, including writing the rules to remain a member.

The question is: how would you solve the problem?