Congressman Eric Massa (D. NY), who won a stunning mandate of a full 2% in his last election, has openly stated that he will "vote against the interests of my district" so that he can support a single payer health care system. Now let's be clear, this is a representative democracy and the people elect someone to represent them. They do not vote on each individual issue. A representative has to act with principle and to do what he believes is right, even if it may not be popular. The antidote for this is to remove them at the next poll. There is an argument that in the modern age, when the people's will is so quickly avaiable, that it would be irresponsible to ignore it completely.
But this goes beyond that. This particular member of Congress is showing himself to be an ideologue who does not respect the opinions of his constituents. He is not open to debate on this. Congress has its sessions designed so that the representatives can go back to their districts to speak with their people and go back to represent their wishes before the government. This is disturbing and it is more common than I would like. You may remember that the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) faced roughly 85% opposition from the public, yet the Bush administration pushed through the program along with Congress unheading of the public outcry. And we wonder why there is so much passion at the town halls? The American people feel ignored, and rightly so.
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