Imagine

Politico reports a story from one of President Obama’s townhall meetings:

At Wednesday’s town hall in Atkinson, Ill., a local farmer who said he grows corn and soybeans expressed his concerns to President Barack Obama about “more rules and regulations” — including those concerning dust, noise and water runoff — that he heard would negatively affect his business.

The president, on day three of his Midwest bus tour, replied: “If you hear something is happening, but it hasn’t happened, don’t always believe what you hear.”

When the room broke into soft laughter, the president added, “No — and I’m serious about that.”

Saying that “folks in Washington” like to get “all ginned up” about things that aren’t necessarily happening (“Look what’s comin’ down the pipe!”), Obama’s advice was simple: “Contact USDA.”

“Talk to them directly. Find out what it is that you’re concerned about,” Obama told the man. “My suspicion is, a lot of times, they’re going to be able to answer your questions and it will turn out that some of your fears are unfounded.”

Politico decided to take the president’s advice and see what happened. The answer: bupkis. After being bounced from federal agency to state agency and back to another federal agency again and again they gave up, still without getting the answer to the original question.

Now imagine that there were an official, possibly an elected official, whose job it was intercede with his or her constituents on matters of just this kind. And imagine that there was a phrase used to describe it: constituent service.

Yes, that kind of job is exactly the kind of thing that Congressmen are supposed to do for us. The problem isn’t just that the executive branch has gotten too big for its britches (or for the ordinary citizen to cope with). It’s that the districts of those who’re supposed to be doing the coping have grown so big that only a small number of louder voices get served. Money is speech, you know.

Not everything about how our government is supposed to work is written into the text of the Constitution. Congressmen are not just supposed to sit in Washington, write laws, raise money, and run for re-election every couple of years. They’re supposed to come back to their districts and interact with their constituents every so often, too.