If an employee was completely unresponsive to her or his employer, the employee would likely not have a job for very long. Unfortunately, this is not the case in politics. Americans’ approval rating of the job Congress is doing has fallen to 18%, yet in the 2020 general election, 93% of incumbents nationwide won their reelection bids. Our political system is so broken that elected officials are not motivated to be responsive or accountable.
With a single question I wanted to ask Missouri’s congressional delegation, I called or emailed the offices of Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley, Democratic Reps. Cori Bush and Emanuel Cleaver II, and Republicans Ann Wagner, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Vicki Hartzler, Sam Graves, Billy Long, and Jason Smith. No one responded for comment. Zero. The failure to respond was sweeping and bipartisan.
The disappointing reality is that none of them had any incentive to reply to me.
