Had an interesting back and forth with a friend who was mad that our congressman didn't vote party line, but instead was voting based off the values of his constituents. The representative down here in South Texas is often called the most republican of the democrats in the House. Curious what some of you political heads on here think, what is the job of the politician, to represent their party or their people?
An argument could be made that both are valid, but reps/senators etc are voted in to represent us, not the party. For example, Merkley and Wyden were voted in for Oregon, not the US. People weren't happy with Gordon Smith, but he represented Oregon, and voted that way. At least, imho.
Logical and educated people know what policies are good for society as a whole. Voting to restrict those things is evil and wrong. And both parties do it. Representatives should be voting to improve the lives, capability, and rights/freedoms of the most people. So in those instances I encourage politicians to split with their party and/or constituents.
They are supposed to be leaders, not followers. If the party and their constituents are wrong, they should defy both. barfo
We’re a representative republic, we’re not a parliamentary system so the representative should be voting in what they view is the best interest of their constituency. If they don’t, they lose their position, and that is how it was designed to work.
This is the wrong answer. This is the correct answer. Unfortunately few understand the nuance in these statements.
That is the correct answer as to how it should work. Mine is the cynical answer as to how it DOES work for too many of our elected officials.
I was reading somewhere that almost 80% of the politicians up for re-election who voted against the Infrastructure Bill are now running ads touting the benefits the bill brings to their state as a reason to re-elect them. So they voted against the needs of their constituency yet making it sound like they didn't.
I would argue that those who vote according to what the polls say are much less likely to lose their position than those who vote for what they view to be in the best interests of their constituency.
Believe it or not most things I have seen that study this disproves this argument, the general rule is politicians vote in what they believe in. Obviously this isn’t an absolute truth they don’t vote on what they believe 100%, but over the course of 100 votes the vast majority of those 100 votes align with their personal values. There are tough votes in which they may vote in a way that is politically expedient that get a lot of attention, but generally this is the case over time. There are exceptions to this, as some politicians don’t have personal values, such as Mitch McConnell. But it is generally an accurate statement in aggregate.
