The reason legislation gets sticky is due to the absurd legislation riders + omnibus bills and horse trading that goes on to get them through. And that issue has gotten even worse because candidates represent far too many people.
If a representative only has to worry about ~30k people (~24k active voters) in a hyperlocal area, they can very easily manage campaigning and running themselves. That would be about 1 mi² of NYC; you could probably cover that with a poster campaign and a few town halls. That small of a voter base could skew very radically to any side of the political spectrum.
With 750k people you become reliant on big donors and national party funds. Vote against the party and you’ll be primaried. Additionally, your voter base is much more diverse which biases candidates toward lukewarm and inoffensive platforms. That stifles your ability to form coalitions and reinforces partisan milquetoast gridlock.
The reason legislation gets sticky is due to the absurd legislation riders + omnibus bills and horse trading that goes on to get them through. And that issue has gotten even worse because candidates represent far too many people.
If a representative only has to worry about ~30k people (~24k active voters) in a hyperlocal area, they can very easily manage campaigning and running themselves. That would be about 1 mi² of NYC; you could probably cover that with a poster campaign and a few town halls. That small of a voter base could skew very radically to any side of the political spectrum.
With 750k people you become reliant on big donors and national party funds. Vote against the party and you’ll be primaried. Additionally, your voter base is much more diverse which biases candidates toward lukewarm and inoffensive platforms. That stifles your ability to form coalitions and reinforces partisan milquetoast gridlock.
Yup, now imagine all the riders, poison pills, etc. with 6,000 congress critters…