On a recent segment of HuffPost Live, NationBuilder VP of Community Adriel Hampton participated in a virtual roundtable discussion on Rep. Steve Pearce's (R-N.M.) proposed legislation to create a "virtual Congress." Rep. Pearce believes that allowing members of Congress to spend the majority of their time in their home districts will enable them to be more connected to the needs of the people they are representing.

During the discussion, Adriel suggested that the concept of virtual participation would be better if it were flipped on its head. He argued that technology should be used to expand citizen access to representatives by having citizens schedule virtual meetings from their home districts instead of the other way around. He also pointed out that the high cost of elections require politicians to spend an extraordinary amount of time fundraising and that fixing this area of U.S. politics would have a more meaningful impact on how representative Congress is. You can watch the full discussion here: