Shortly before the turn of the year, I got a look at some polling numbers that brought me up short. They suggest a problem with our representative democracy.

Two-thirds of the Americans surveyed don't believe members of Congress care what people like them think. Who do members of Congress listen to most closely? Just over half the people in the poll said: lobbyists.

These are dismaying figures, because good communication anchors our democracy." If voters don't believe they're being listened to, then a key piece of our political system needs rebuilding.

Fixing the problem will require the efforts of voters and elected officials alike. My own belief is that members of Congress need to work harder than they have been to reach beyond the circles in which they usually travel, while voters need to engage their representatives, not just passively hear about them.

The payoff should be significant: more trust on both sides, more faith on the part of ordinary Americans that the system isn't stacked against them, and a more vibrant representative democracy.

Lee Hamilton is Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years.