re: #46 Spocomptonite

Come 2012, the average population of 434 congressional districts will be above 700k, …

Which is far too many people for any single Representative to be ever able to meet them even in large groups/

Back in 1911, when the 435 figure was decided up, the US population was under 94 million. Which meant each Rep had just over 200,000 constituents on average. Now, while transportation was slower back then one could still get 500 people into a big hall, and with a goodly fraction of the population being children anyway, it meant a Rep could in theory at least be seen by most of his constituents even if personal conversations were impossible.

We really do need to enlarge the House. Get rid of the Senate (it can be replaced by a minimally scoped Board of Governors) and add 100 or more bodies to the House.