As they departed the Capitol for the five-week recess, House Republicans nonetheless believed they had a credible case to make for why the opposition should stay in the minority for the final two years of Trump’s presidency.
As they departed the Capitol for the five-week recess, House Republicans nonetheless believed they had a credible case to make for why the opposition should stay in the minority for the final two years of Trump’s presidency.
You have a fundamental misunderstanding of how Congress works.
Time spent in DC is supposed to be the smallest part of their job. Recess isn’t vacation for them, if they’re doing it right. Recess is when they actually do the job of representation. They’re supposed to be spending time in their districts holding town halls, having open office hours, and working with local groups on issues that need to be brought up when they are in session.
They should be spending more time with their constituents than in DC. Spending time with constituents is the most fundamental job function of a representative.
A lot don’t do that though, and that’s on their idiot constituents for continually voting them in and not holding them accountable.
How much time have you personally spent with any of your representatives?
I’ve met my federal representative in person a dozen or so times at her office locally, and been to 6 town halls, both in person and virtual teleconference town halls. My state House rep I have met a ton. He’s extremely active in the community.
A whole lot of words there to say: “You’re wrong… but maybe also not wrong.”
You’re wrong, but for a different reason.
Being on recess isn’t the issue. They should be on recess and working in their districts more often than they are actually in session in DC. They ideally shouldn’t be in session that much at all. Their primary role is being at home in their district working with their constituents and that’s where the vast majority of work is intended to take place.
Not working while on recess is a completely different issue, and that’s up the constituents to enforce via voting. Plenty of representatives and senators are actively working in their districts when on recess, like they should be. Those that aren’t should be voted out by their constituents. If the constituents keep voting them in, they’re openly saying that’s the representation they want. And that’s on them.
Seems like it should be a mandatory part of the job. Senators should have scheduled town halls in every district in their state, Representatives should have scheduled town halls in every municipality in their district, every year.
It should be, yes. The good ones are already doing this, but there absolutely should be some requirement to make the lazy ones actually do their job.
And, ideally, we’d have an active and informed constituency that keeps their representatives honest. They should be terrified of being voted out because their constituents keep their feet to the fire.
Ideally, yeah. But the mandatory town hall thing seems a bit easier to actually achieve. Have you met the constituency?
Lol yeah that’s the issue. You cannot expect people to put rules on themselves like that if nobody is going to enforce it. It truly does fall to the constituency to be the enforcement by voting them out when they abdicate their responsibilities.
I appreciate the info. Thank you.