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Many assume that, outside of elections, public opinion polls, popular protest, and prolific advocacy campaigns should dictate the policy decisions Senators and Representatives make. We are a government of, by, and for the People—the logic goes—so Congress should do what the majority of the People want. The reality is more complicated than that, but the disconnect between popular opinion, media coverage, and congressional action inspires both anger and apathy. People feel Congress is not listening.

As discussed in the CMF report The Future of Citizen Engagement: What Americans Want from Congress & How Members Can Build Trust, constituents value the relationship between Members of Congress and those they represent. They want to feel heard, but they do not feel Congress is listening. They do not think government or Congress works for them.

Since the Taft administration, when the number of Representatives was frozen at 435, not only has the population of the country grown significantly, but technology has revolutionized work and communication. Radio, broadcast and cable TV, computers, the Internet, and mobile communications have all been invented and/or widely adopted since then. All have also dramatically changed the dynamic between Members of Congress and the People.

If your grassroots advocacy tactics rely on generating fear or anger at Congress or specific legislators, are you sowing the seeds of mistrust in our democracy? If your practices for collecting new leads for advocacy or fundraising rely on sending mass emails to Congress, are you diverting congressional resources away from more meaningful constituent engagement? 

If your grassroots advocacy tactics rely on generating fear or anger at Congress or specific legislators, are you sowing the seeds of mistrust in our democracy? If your practices for collecting new leads for advocacy or fundraising rely on sending mass emails to Congress, are you diverting congressional resources away from more meaningful constituent engagement?

Congress is designed to be more directly connected and beholden to the people than the other branches of our national government, a fact that is deeply embedded into our democratic culture, practice, and expectations. Congress is, therefore, the institution most responsible for ensuring that the People's First Amendment rights are vigorously facilitated in the public policy process.

The freedoms of assembly, speech, the press, and petition are all critically important to the relationship between the institution of Congress and the People as well as between individual Members and their constituents. Organizers of grassroots advocacy help their members engage in almost every one of the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.

Constituents look to the organizations they trust to help them monitor what is happening in Congress and to help them understand when and how to become engaged in the political process. Though they're often denigrated as "special interest groups," they, like congressional staff, play an important role in the democratic dialogue.

The First Amendment right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances is now so little understood that, in a 2011 opinion, the Supreme Court indicated that "Some effort must be made to identify the historic and fundamental principles that led to the enumeration of the right to petition in the First Amendment, among other rights fundamental to liberty." Relying on the work of present-day legal scholars, Kathy Goldschmidt delves into this mysterious First Amendment right, including what can be done to revive it to its original state and what that would look like in today's democracy relying on international examples.

Trust between Members of Congress and those they represent—between Congress and the People—is the foundation of our democracy. If, as at present, Congress and the People are skeptical, dismissive, or mistrustful of one another, democracy cannot flourish.