GranolaBox

In one of the funniest scenes from his film Fahrenheit 911, Michael Moore drives around the Capitol in an ice cream truck reading the Patriot Act out loud after finding out that nobody actually read it before passing it. This dramatic scene reminds us of the very painful fact that we, as citizens on either side of the political fence fail to hold our elected representatives accountable for their votes.

We elect our Congresspersons and send them off to Congress, and don’t often hear about their voting records until the next election when they’re being distorted by their opponents in negative ads. Even if the candidate from your party won, with so much of mainstream politics lingering painfully around the middle, voting along party lines is no guarantee that the people you elect will vote the way you expect them to.

Congress.org has done a great deal to allow citizens easy access to the business of Congress. In so doing, they allow citizens to keep tabs on Congress in one extremely convenient package.

My favorite feature of the site, and the one I recommend all citizens use, is the Vote Monitor in the Citizens to Go section, which is easy to miss toward the bottom of the front page. By simply entering your zip code and your e-mail address, you receive weekly updates that tell you exactly how your Congresspersons voted on recent bills presented to both houses, along with a brief description of the bill. It also tells you which bills congress will be voting on in the near future.

Are you upset about the way your Congressperson voted on a particular bill? Just click the e-mail button and let them know. Is there a particular issue that you feel passionately about? Enter your zip code and e-mail, and they’ll let you know how bills related to that issue are progressing, and how your representatives have been voting on that issue.

Holding Congress accountable for their votes is a critical step in putting government back into the hands of the people. Congress.org has made that step much, much easier.

Comment!

Any other suggestions for keeping tabs on your elected representatives?

Technorati Tags: Fahrenheit 911, Michael Moore, Patriot Act, Congress, voting records

Filed under: Politics on March 23rd, 2007