It's an insidious method to transfer hate and ire from the elected officials to unelected bureaucrats.
The congresspeople don't have to answer to their constituents - instead when they call to complain, they get to act like they are on our side with "Oh wow, that's terrible! I'll look into it!" (knowing they never will, of course).
So instead, our anger is redirected to "the EPA", full of faceless, unelected pieces of shit. Worse case scenario, some deputy director gets blamed for the bad rulemaking, gets "fired", then starts their new job at the alphabet agency across the street the next day.
The congressperson gets to send you an official letter on their letterhead, informing you that the bad person has been removed from the agency, you think they've accomplished something, and you vote for them again in the next election.
Agreed 1000%.
It's an insidious method to transfer hate and ire from the elected officials to unelected bureaucrats.
The congresspeople don't have to answer to their constituents - instead when they call to complain, they get to act like they are on our side with "Oh wow, that's terrible! I'll look into it!" (knowing they never will, of course).
So instead, our anger is redirected to "the EPA", full of faceless, unelected pieces of shit. Worse case scenario, some deputy director gets blamed for the bad rulemaking, gets "fired", then starts their new job at the alphabet agency across the street the next day.
The congressperson gets to send you an official letter on their letterhead, informing you that the bad person has been removed from the agency, you think they've accomplished something, and you vote for them again in the next election.
It really is an ingenious process.