I don't think writing to Congress has really ever been the problem, I think the problem is accountability.
The two things we need to see in one place are our representatives voting records for a given topic, and accurate data about what the constituents of that representative desired.
I'm not saying this is an easy thing to solve, mostly because getting accurate data about what constituent want, and doing it correctly, essentially means building an online voting system. That isn't easy, but that is exactly what we need.
Real. Transparent. Democracy.
[Edit]
The accountability application wouldn't need to be binding, it just needs to accurately show if the representative is actually representing the will of the people. It should provide one citizen one vote per pole/bill, provide information about the percentage of the constituency that's registered and voted, and compare those results to the representatives actual vote. I believe that authenticating citizens and public participation would be the biggest hurdles to a system like this.
At the very least this would raise awareness and stimulate conversations between representatives and constituents.
Congress people are quite accountable already. The problem is that they are accountable to gerrymandered districts so they are basically guaranteed support on their extreme ideas. Every time the public gets actually upset about something, the system works, everyone flips on a dime. The problem is systemic at a very high level. There are a few other problems I could describe, but they are also structural and prevent the will of the people from being accurately expressed. Once you resolve the accuracy issue, you can get into real political problems rather than manufactured ones.
The two things we need to see in one place are our representatives voting records for a given topic, and accurate data about what the constituents of that representative desired.
I'm not saying this is an easy thing to solve, mostly because getting accurate data about what constituent want, and doing it correctly, essentially means building an online voting system. That isn't easy, but that is exactly what we need.
Real. Transparent. Democracy.
[Edit] The accountability application wouldn't need to be binding, it just needs to accurately show if the representative is actually representing the will of the people. It should provide one citizen one vote per pole/bill, provide information about the percentage of the constituency that's registered and voted, and compare those results to the representatives actual vote. I believe that authenticating citizens and public participation would be the biggest hurdles to a system like this.
At the very least this would raise awareness and stimulate conversations between representatives and constituents.