"when's the last time you spoke to your own representative? "
I've testified to the state legislature within the last year, you have to get involved, you are totally right. The other thing to consider is that social workers are among the lowest paid of civil servants, garbage men are paid a lot more. you get what you pay for, in addition to progressives trying to destroy every aspect of American culture and all of our institutions from within.
You're right- you have to be engaged. I was talking about federal reps- they're the ones that live in isolation and out of touch. Look at Maxine Waters, for example, she represents South Central- I doubt she's ever even been there.
There was a quote in a book I read... when asked why a senator had voted a certain way on a bill, he replied "I got a couple of letters from constituents- it's what they wanted."
My congressional representative lies and claims that he lives at his father's house, which is on the route where I walk my dog, I caught him on Thanksgiving one year picking up his dad and gave him an earful. Any of them are a phone call away, it is a pain in the ass to go to DC. They really do care about the letters and phone calls they receive, of course often they care more about the cash they get from lobbyists but if they keep hearing the same shit from their constituents they have to care about that, that has the potential to make them lose an election. I also had a situation where I heard about a local ordinance being proposed on the radio and got all pissed off about it but then I called the councilwoman who had proposed it and discussed it with her and it was misrepresented on the radio and actually a good idea, and then she knew what sort of things would not be acceptable going forward. For a couple of years the city was putting a portopotty across the street from my house and I tried to get rid of it calling different people for 2 summers but finally I called the mayor's office directly and the thing was gone in a day. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
In my book The Night Gods there's a line... A politician is only as good as the corporations that pay to get him elected.