Sheila Plotkin, an 80-year-old retired teacher and McFarland resident, is among the growing segment of Americans questioning the strength of democracy in this country. In 2015, she took the lead in forming a citizens' group, "We, the Irrelevant," which uses public records requests to gauge the power of citizens to influence state government, The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism looked into this question in considerable detail and the results of its investigation are reported here. [WARNING: reading this article may be hazardous to your confidence in Wisconsin's state government.]