From: Monte Davis 

"Mark"  wrote:

>Did you send your representative(s) a monthly letter (that'd be about 140 of
>them) reminding them of their promises? Neither did I.

Actually, I do write my reps fairly often. I'm considerably lazier than I
was at 25-35, when I put many hours a week into community organizing,
lobbying, and getting some changes in city and state laws. But I still do
feel (at a deeper level than the partisan or ideological issues we quarrel
about) that we get the government we deserve). And one letter, or one warm
body at an event with some Q&A, or some time devoted to phone-bank
work, means more than a hundred Internet posts.

At a national level, I've never been happy with the long, steady slide
since FDR to more and more focus on the president, which inevitably has
meant less on Congress. From 1933 through Eisenhower there was some justice
in associating that more with the Democrats, but from Nixon on *every*
president has somehow found reasons to stay front and center full time, and
*every* congress -- with a few transient revolts
--  has let its prerogatives slip a little more. I consider that a
much bigger long-term problem than the "legislation by the
courts" that Republican culture warriors fret about.

Monte Davis
http://montedavis.livejournal.com

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