If there was to have been a haven for the landed nobility and the wealthy merchants of the nation then perhaps the Senate was to serve this purpose. Our House of Representatives, however, is defined in the United States Constitution to be composed of Representatives elected in uniform districts of as few as thirty thousand people. The bond between the representative and the people gained by such close proximity is the means by which the common people are protected from the encroachments on freedom and liberty that have ever manifested themselves when adequate representation is absent (1). Smaller constituency sizes provide a proper mechanism for the two way flow of information necessary to protect the society from the aristocratic and autocratic encroachments of big government. In smaller districts it becomes necessary for representatives to keep their constituents properly informed with the unvarnished truth and to comport themselves in keeping with the views and opinions of the duly informed constituents. For those who would not do so are rather quickly challenged and replaced by more honest and capable individuals. And this is so because it is possible for candidates to present themselves to their communities without millions of dollars in campaign funds. Such candidates simply cannot be shut out or silenced.
Whether by design or malfeasance our Congress, in 1910, denied the people of the United States their rights to adequate representation and solidified the control of two major political parties by limiting the membership in the House of Representatives to 435. Since that time the voting population within an average representative district has grown to well over four hundred thousand. The most debilitating effect of this growth has been the huge advantage granted to one way mass media marketing and campaigning and therefore, the huge advantage shared by those who can fund such marketing.
Due to increasing constituency size, it has become impossible for most individuals of good character with a true desire to act in the best interest of their neighbors to present themselves to those who would choose them. It has become impossible to challenge the entrenched power of the two major parties in electoral districts because these districts embrace so many people as to absolutely require the use of mass media in presenting ones self and ones insights for consideration in local elections. The population of our typical representative districts rivals the population of some of the smaller nations of the world. It is impossible to debate real issues that concern us because mass media simply drowns out all real debate. We are left with choreographed presentations in which the drummed up issues are presented and discussed in such a way as to satisfy the campaign contributors and, at the same time, allow some microscopic differentiation of candidates. Funding aside, it is simply not possible to "know the sentiment" of four hundred thousand people in such a way as to properly legislate or to accept or reject pending legislation on behalf of ones constituents. Within smaller constituencies ranging in size up to as much as forty or even sixty thousand it is entirely possible to present ones self to the voters in local forums and to know the sentiments of the voters on a more direct basis, omitting the marketing and coloring of one way mass media. Decreasing the geographic area and number of individuals encompassed by each district results in political discourse and debate that cannot be averted as it is in larger constituencies. Voters have greater opportunity to interact with and elect House members more focused on the prosperity of the people themselves as opposed those who are more sympathetic to the preeminence of aristocratic power.