Representation has a Limit!
There is no question that Article I, Section 2, Clause 3 was not only intended to limit the size of Congressional districts, but says as much, to whit;
"The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand,.."
There is plenty of evidence to support this fact in Federalist Papers, #56, to whit;
“…it seems to give the fullest assurance, that a representative for every THIRTY THOUSAND INHABITANTS will render the latter (The House of Representatives), both a safe and competent guardian of the interests which will be confided to it.”
— Federalist Paper No. 56 (February 19, 1788)
In 1910, there were about 92 million people/1305 Total Congressmen and staff workers combined, or about;
70,000 Constituents/Congressional worker
In 2010, there were approximately 305 million inhabitants in America, but in 2010, there were TWENTY TWO staffers/Representative. With the numbers calculated, I conclude that in 2010, there were;
305 million people/435 Representatives + 22 Staffers/Representative= over 10,000 workers in Congress, or about;
30,500 Constituents/Congressional worker.
What we infer from this information is the following;
- That it takes at least one worker in Congress for every thirty Thousand people to get the business of Representation done,
- It is practicable to have 30,000 people for every "worker in the House", and it IS a good number.
- That there is plenty of room in the halls of Congress to accommodate and coordinate over TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE because it's already being done today.
- That THIS is the info we need to show our state Representative and anyone else who thinks that 11,000 Representatives is not "...as practicable as possible". And;
- We need to hold our elected officials in all seats of government, starting with our state Representatives, accountable to keep their Oaths' of Office and immediately move to repair this inequity.
It's high time we championed this issue at the state level and beyond; and I for one, will not be swayed from this course. I intend to hold MY state Representative, Eric Nelson, accountable to his Oath of Office.
Anyone wanna come along and watch me throw myself to the wolves?
Questions? Comments? Opinions? Advice?
Replies
it seems to me that with ten thousand representatives, congress would have to have a lot of groups. Would these be arbitray groups, like Tim Cox's GOOOH proposal? I couhHow would this work?
Morton, Thank you for your insight.
I threw out the comment about GOOOH, thinking that everyone had heard of them, from 2008. The premise with GOOOH was for people to form arbitrary groups and discuss an issue until there was a consensus. Argue until there was agreement, not a compromise if possible. Use persuasion to come to an agreement.
With ten thousand Representatives, it seems to me this would accomplish two things.
GOOOH was set up as a way to choose a Representative in each Congressional district, but could easily be adapted to your idea.
GOOOH stands for Get Out Of Our House. Pronounced GO! It was created by a Texas man named Tim Cox and several areas of Texas still attempt to use this system.
ds