Futile Votes?

I write my house representative and she writes back pretty much ignoring what I’ve asked her about. Her way is not my way. I think of that letter as one of the many futile votes I’ve cast in my life.  But sometimes I imagine a conversation with my senator or house representative.  “How do you balance it?” I would ask.  “Your constituents want opposing things.  You run on a certain platform and then you get a ton of mail requesting the opposite.  What is your obligation?”

Jamelle Bouie writes today at The Daily Beast about the job of a legislature: 

At all levels of government, lawmakers are pushed and pulled by a variety of political and institutional forces. It’s impossible for any elected official—even a member of a state Assembly—to synthesize the will of the voters, the problems of constituencies, and the priorities of interests into a single guiding light. Instead, they have to balance competing concerns and plot the best possible course. Let’s say the voters in [a representative’s] district wanted to raise corporate taxes to 50 percent. Would he vote in favor of that proposal? Or would he solicit input from local business interests, talk to constituents to get a better sense of what their true concerns are, and make a judgment based on what’s best for the district as a whole? If his goal is to be an effective representative, and not just a parrot for public opinion, he’ll want to do the latter…. 

In a representative democracy of shared powers across separate institutions, lawmakers aren’t just rubberstamps for public opinion. They’re autonomous actors who shape their states and districts as much as they are shaped by them. And the United States, in particular, gives its elected officials a tremendous amount of leeway and influence, if they want it.

Shaping their states as much as they are shaped--interesting.