Does the representative in your district or senators in your state represent your views in Congress?

Yes! Richard Durbin and Barrack Obama in the Senate, and Jan Schakowski in the House. All excellent representatives of my point of view.

We live in a system of majority rule. Lately, our country has become very polarized. In most national elections, the winner does not represent the views of nearly half of the people. Apathy is not the way to fix that!

I wish! But no they do not.

I live in the District of Columbia. I have no voting members of Congress (and not even a lousy non-voting member in the Senate)! That’s right, folks, 580,000 American citizens are completely without representation at the federal level, and I, sadly, am one of them.

Move to Virginia or Maryland! It’s a little bit hard to see this as tyranny when you have other options.

I have a great representative – Frank Pallone – who is both responsive to local issues and a liberal Democrat like me. My Senators are Frank Lautenberg and Bob Menendez, both of whom agree with most of my views. Kind of lucky, I guess.

I’m very pleased with my representative, Brad Sherman and to a large degree with Senator Diane Feinstein. Senator Barbara Boxer is a bit further to the left than I would like.

@Marina, sure that’s a good answer for me. I have the resources to make that move. If I was really up in arms about it, I could indeed move. But I would love to hear you say that to one of the thousands of families living in deep poverty just blocks from the US capitol. Those families, many with parents working several jobs, don’t have the opportunity to just “move to Virginia,” and they deserve to have representation just as much as you and I do.

And by the way, are you really suggesting that its not a big deal that some Americans get to have to Congressional representation, while others, who live just across a river, do not? Is that your true position?

@Janbb, I am a huge fan of all three people you mentioned. Congressman Pallone and Senators Menendez and Lautenberg are absolutely some of the best people up there. You lucky dog!

@Michael I was, of course, being flip. Historically, it made sense when it was done initially. It probably does not make sense any more, but you know Congress. They are reluctant to give up perks and control.

I’m still not convinced it should be treated like a state. Initially, the residents of each district voted either in Maryland or Virginia depending on the district. I don’t see why we could not go back to that system.

@Marina…my bad. Hard to get a sense of tone through the internet. : )

I think you’re right. I would think it would make some sense to give DC residents a congressperson, and then let us vote in Maryland for Senate (probably not Virginia since the GOP wouldn’t love the idea of adding several hundred thousand more Dem voters to the state).

Our government is not your government, but I do feel that the party I’ll most likely vote on in the next elections largely represents my views. It’s just too bad that they don’t represent most people in the Netherlands and thus are not part of the coalition.

I do think that our current government largely represents a large part of the Dutch population, even though a lot of people seem to think otherwise.