Get things done for people and make sure they know you did it. The modal representative _can't_ get things done anymore so all they have left is posturing. I'm proposing a model where reps _could_ get things done, so then they could do that. It used to work! In our lifetime!
how will that function?
Yeah, the key is that pork barrel spending gave members lots of goodies to distribute—not so much in total value, but in volume of projects helped. So Local Rep is at every groundbreaking, every river cleanup, every new streetlight—every voter thinks they're getting something out of the deal.
Furthermore, bc that all involves coordinating with a zillion orgs, you've got a zillion people telling their friends abt how helpful Local Rep is. And if Local Rep sucks at this, bc he's more worried about getting Fox hits, word spreads that he sucks. Not perfect, but better than what we have now.
Works in the other direction as well. Earmarks were like a summer book report for Representatives. In order to figure out how to get earmarks for their district they had to actually spend time working with the people in their district. Now their entire job is raising money and watching Fox News.
Not to overly vallorize earmarks. They're a magnet for corruption and dirty dealing, but it was incredibly foolish to believe that getting rid of earmarks would get rid of the corruption. The real problem is that American voters don't reward scrupulous reps over crooked ones.
That's a smart thought - if the reps have personal carrots they can go for (just a little bit of horse trading), the incentive to posture changes