Recently the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published several letters to the editor in the space normally allocated for the Voices page editor's Wednesday column, while she took the day off. Some of the missives amounted to open letters aimed at various members of the Arkansas congressional delegation, berating the senators and representatives for ignoring the constituents they supposedly were elected to serve. Having received no replies, the letter-writers decided to go public.

Hopefully, they didn't expect to embarrass or shame the targets of their ire; an exercise in futility if ever there was one.

I was unsurprised by the complaints. I once had occasion to email Sens. John Boozman and Tom Cotton on behalf of a Sunday School class member who asked classmates to urge both of them to help break a logjam in the Senate involving a funding bill to assist adults with severe disabilities--legislation vital to continue providing needed help to millions of institutionalized Americans, including her adult child. I wrote both senators, because she is a dear friend, and it was the least I could to do to try and help her, but I didn't expect any results. The senators did not disappoint.

Within a couple of hours, I received boilerplate replies from each (actually, I'm sure, from a clerical-level assistant sent on behalf of their bosses, who to this day probably have never seen my request), expressing the senators' thanks for contacting them about the issue, their sincere concern, and assuring me I would soon receive a detailed response addressing my question. I'm still waiting for those "detailed responses." Oh; the date of my original email: Nov. 7, 2019. Maybe their answers were just two more covid casualties. Thankfully, the bill passed; whether assisted by our two senators or not, I don't know.

Since I'd never made a campaign contribution to either Boozman or Cotton, nor had I ever voted in a Republican primary in Arkansas--both matters of public record readily accessible to anyone, including the senators' staff members--I could have predicted the outcome of my request, without benefit of being clairvoyant.

In one verse of Bob Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues," he sings about "Housing Project Hill," advising residents to avoid trouble, "Because the cops don't need you, and, man, they expect the same." A pretty good description of the attitude toward constituents of far too many elected officials nowadays, regardless of their political party, or for Boozman and Cotton, quasi-religious cult.

It's been said that there are two vital (albeit self-serving) questions to ask yourself before starting a relationship with any entity or another human being: What can they do for me? What can they do to me? (Not necessarily in that order of priority, obviously.) A minimum amount of research by the senators' staffers would have easily determined that in my particular case, the answer to both queries would be, "Not much, if anything."

At least it's comforting to know I'm not alone among my fellow Arkansans in having achieved invisibility in the eyes of our congressional delegation. Too bad that superpower doesn't extend beyond certain elected officials; it could come in quite handy at times ...

Years ago--well, more accurately, decades ago--I contacted my congressman and one of Arkansas' U.S. senators seeking assistance obtaining passes to tour the U.S. Capitol Building. My family and I were planning to visit Washington, D.C., as what quaintly used to be called "ordinary tourists"; not the post-Jan. 6, 2021, definition of that term.

They promptly coordinated their responses, with the senator taking the lead, and going well beyond merely accommodating my request. He arranged for one of his aides to conduct our tour, allowing us and a few other Arkansans visiting the Capitol that day access to areas of the building not included on the standard general public group tour.

Somewhere in between those long-ago congressional communiques and my more recent ones, the concept of constituent service has basically dried up and blown away. One culprit is the Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which decided that corporations are equivalent to human beings, at least where political contributions are concerned. (There's a bumper sticker that reads, "I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.") Very few registered voters can compete with big business when it comes to political donations--although there is at least one, currently serving as the unelected de facto president of the United States. Money secures access. Therefore, most elected officials are more attentive to corporate donors than lowly constituents.

But another factor is the moral character of too many individuals being elected these days and their obsession with building and maintaining giant war chests. They don't have to place Mammon ahead of citizens; they make that choice voluntarily.

"Follow the money" means much more than ever, with no prospect of any change in sight.

Doug Szenher of Little Rock retired from public/media relations with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality after previously working as a newspaper reporter in Hot Springs and Texarkana.


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