Control of the agenda?

Lately some celebrities have been calling for a more in-depth look at what has been taking place in America. Richard Dreyfuss talked about the need for citizens to redevelop the skills needed to participate in civil discussion. Bill Maher himself wrote about the need to reexamine the American constitution but while I agree with him - I would submit that "we the people" need to regain control of the agenda.

The people's "control of the agenda" is one of the five fundamental characteristics of a "democracy" as listed by scholar Robert Dahl. The five being: 1. Effective participation; 2. Equality in voting; 3. Gaining enlightened understanding; 4. Exercising final control of the agenda; and 5. Inclusion of adults.

By any reasonable measure our system is broken in terms of citizen control of the agenda. Dahl calculated that for any member of the U.S. Congress to spend just ten minutes with each of the adults that they "represent" would take them more than 20 years at 8 hours a day, seven days a week!

To call members of Congress "representatives of the people" is a lie and just plain wrong.