If I Were A U.S. Representative

If I were representing a constituency to the U.S. Congress, this is what I'd do: Since I don't believe in "representative" democracy as it's presently conceived of in our "democracy," I would initiate a new process which democratizes things as much as I could manage.

Here's a first outline: My votes would not actually be "my" votes. I would have them be decided by a direct democratic process among my constituents. One possibility: Have regular public meetings, at which the public can debate & decide how I should vote on upcoming questions. Especially if I were representing a large area, such as a State, it might be more democratic to have the meetings in various places, so no one has an unfair advantage by being close. Another idea: Some sort of ballot process. In order to be practical, it might have to be on the Internet.

I would run with the process under which my "votes" would be chosen as my platform, explicitly defined. The process would be a constitutional one, under which the process itself could potentially be changed by my constituents themselves at their own will & whim. I would then have exactly as much power as a member of the Electoral College: The power to fuck things up by ignoring my sworn duty, but no more than that.

If many such "representatives" were elected, with new public organizations taking onto themselves the power which used to be assigned to individuals, we could then progressively shed the intermediate layer of "voting" in an assembly as if we were in a previous century.

Even if they do it by "electronic device."

Yeah, change.

<3