As a citizen of this country I have always thought that my interests were represented by my elected officials. Admittedly, I had not paid enough attention during my youth and the early working years of my life, not unlike most people I imagine. However, once one looks a little closer to the “representation” one gets at both the State and Federal level it is quite apparent the average citizen gets little or no access to their elected representatives and minimal feedback from the access that is afforded. This is particularly true at the Federal level.

In my State both Senators as well as the Governor are of different philosophical views than myself and are voted into office by the people in the larger cities that seem to share their perspective. When either of those Senators or the Governor visits the smaller cities it seems to be a well-kept secret until after they leave. Any sort of interaction with the local populace appears to be limited to the party faithful who appear to be the only ones that know they are going to be in the area. Not that going to such town hall or fundraising event would have much impact, and in fact many such events around the country have put dissenting voices at risk of physical violence. Not much of a statement for representative democracy.

Access to elected officials for the average citizen appears to be limited to phone calls, letter writing and email. Phone calls reach a staffer that records your opinion, supposedly to be tallied and reviewed by your representative; letters and email are at least a sort of paper trail of opinion, but generally result in a form letter explaining the representative’s position and doesn’t necessarily address any specific issues that you raise. Sending an email requires a rather burdensome information page that will not store your information for further contact, and responses from your elected representative do not allow replies. All in all trying to get any feedback from any of these individuals most often results in a prepared statement expounding on the wonderful job they are doing and the impression that your input isn’t really necessary; but thanks so much for getting in touch. Replying to, or refuting the content of the representatives position requires that you begin the process all over and there is no indication that your reply is ever associated with the original inquiry.

This aggravating process gives the impression that there is no real interest in elected officials getting any input that differs from their own positions. Their indifference also appears to only increase with time in office. During election cycles visits to the “fly over” parts of the country are orchestrated events to appear engaged, but the home fronts for these individuals are the larger cities and the philosophically supportive. The result is a disinterested populace that feels abandoned by their elected representatives and without recourse to their all-knowing positions.

According to infoplease.com, in Federal elections since 1960, only 12 elections have had over 50% participation, 10 have had less than 40%, and there have been none that exceeded 65%. The average participation rate since 1960 has been 47.5%, in 1986 36.4% of the eligible voters participated in the federal election process. Only in 1960, 1964, and 1968 did the percentage of participation exceed 60%.

This is an appallingly low level of participation in the election process by the citizens of the country, and yet I am not surprised. When you feel that you have no representation in your government and you don’t feel that anything you do has an impact on those in elected positions, it is easy to get discouraged.

While I put the majority of the blame for this situation directly on the elected representatives, there is certainly enough left over for the disinterested citizens. When elected officials are caught behaving improperly and yet they are reelected, how can that possibly be justified? If all it takes are benefits and entitlements that are doled out by elected representatives to attract the segment that continues to vote them into office, than we have sorely failed our citizens in their education as to their responsibilities as members of a free society and a representative government. A society that holds their representatives to the laws of the land and obligations of their oaths of office will be a successful and productive society, otherwise they will be forever obligated to an unresponsive government that exists only to serve the pampered elected that will shun the masses that are shackled into supporting them.

As long as we have elected representatives that do not adequately and properly represent their constituents and merely seek positions of power for personal aggrandizement it is only a matter of time until this grand experiment in freedom is doomed to failure. Until such time that elected officials get more interested in doing their job and less interested in the perks of the job, and until the citizens of this country start holding them to a higher standard, I don’t expect to see much change. In the mean time I personally can’t wait to exercise the one impact that I do have, and that is to vote.