Not representative democracy material.
I don't even feel like I have a way for redress when it comes to Harrisburg. The bar has to be set higher than merely not horrendous.
I called Governor Josh Shapiro's office for a way to send an email with attachments and I was told NO, there’s no way to do that. And the staffer didn’t even ask who I was or what I was calling about or what I wanted to send, or ask me why I was upset. He just said NO. And when I asked to speak to his manager, he said that isn’t possible.
I’m having trouble with the water company (privatized) and being given the runaround for months now. I have bills, voicemails, and my handwritten letters. My state rep and state senator and the governor have not terribly been responsive to me about this. The state senator’s office did get involved once I’d complained to Rep. Rob Bresnahan, the congressperson.
I want to point out here that Rep. Rob Bresnahan (Republican) ran on a platform of addressing people’s hassles and expenses with utility companies. And I will say this, when it comes to my complaints about utility companies, Bresnahan’s office and staff is highly responsive, and quite nice, interested, and polite. And they’ve gone as far as to contact people in the state. But that’s the rub, he’s not in state government, and it’s the state government who controls utilities. I don’t say this as an endorsement of Republicans or even Rob Bresnahan, I’m just pointing this out because I think it can highlight the problem people have when we’re having money stolen by utility companies in late fees for things that are the water company’s fault — a water company that has admitted to having staffing issues and tons of complaints. But then some politician says “the economy is good” or treats constituents poorly on day to day issues like this when we’re trying to get fair consideration.
You just don’t treat a constituent on the phone the way I experienced. A competent staffer of an engaged elected official would’ve inquired as to why I was calling, would ask the nature of what I wanted to send, would’ve been interested in me and why I was upset. He asked me nothing about me or my issue, he just kept saying NO. My guess is that he knew nothing would happen to him treating me like that. If he was worried about his job, he would never speak that way to a constituent.
It's not enough for Democratic Party politicians to just be like ok on the right side of 6 out of 10 issues and 4 out of 10 I agree with the republicans and still going to shove trickle down economics down everyone’s throats too and do shady stuff. And then, on top of all that — bonus — also going to treat constituents like crap.
When Josh Shapiro first got into office as governor one of the first things he did was reverse an anti-corruption gift ban put in place by Tom Wolf. I’ve had former Senator Bob Casey’s senior staffer talk down to me about my disabled status, actually questioning it, which was offensive. I’ve watched all the Democrats celebrate giving millions of dollars in taxpayer money to a literal bank, after so many decades of “bringing the jobs” trickle down economics bullshit we’ve endured here. The local county public health official was quoted in the news patronizing the public as though we’re a panicked mob, as if we couldn’t handle hearing about West Nile Virus in the area. On the other hand in the news the mayor of Scranton talked down to people in February 2025 saying worrying about immigrants being disappeared was “fear mongering”. I’ve been meaning to make a how it started, how it’s going meme about that one. The mayor had worked in the Obama administration, by the way, but sided with the MAGA mogul developer who was making light pollution so bad it was adversely affecting residents downtown.
It’s a problem when elected representatives act like they’re our bosses. And it shows that’s how they see themselves, often by their policy positions, but also because why else would some of their staff feel comfortable acting as if they’re superior to constituents?