Weigh in, folks!

[johnstonmr]

One view is that voters should be electing the best, most forthcoming
individuals with the intelligence and judgment to cast votes that serve the
common good, equality-minded leaders who know enough about rights and
commerce to help shape a better nation and world.

Instead, many neo-conservatives want to make sure that their representatives
hate the same people they do, favor the same narrow business interests as
them, etc. No wonder they turn out to be liars, hypocrites and addicted to
pork-barrel spending.

Should representatives vote as the majority of their constituents want, or
should they represent the needs of their district? Are the two the same
thing, or are they different? If all we want is reps who vote exactly as we
would, then why bother with representative democracy; let's just go 100%
Athenian and everybody who cares can vote on every stupid thing that comes
along?

Comments?

Comments

[johnstonmr]

It's somewhat sad, given that Jefferson's idea for Public Education was that it should educate voters so that they could then use their "ultimate powers of society" wisely. In that, if nothing else (and I'm well aware there are other failures, thanks!), education has failed.