Subj : Re: About GWB
To   : Tracker1
From : Daemon
Date : Mon Oct 10 2005 09:59 pm

 > Finnigann wrote:
 > >> And who approves budgetary spending?  and who had a HUGE increase in
 > >> revenues, and chose to spent more still?  oh yeah, that's right,
 > >> *CONGRESS*
 > >                                                              
 > > Wrong. When a president comes in with a land-slide as did Ronnie. No
 > > congress is gonna tell him no to anything.
 > 
 > The point of congress is to "SERVE the people" ... not to live a life
 > of political posturing.
 > 
 
  Brings up an interesting point.

  Over the last year, the fundamental "job" of a representative has come into 
question locally/regionally, where there are those of us that consider it the 
responsibility of the office-holder to be responsive to the public's opinions, 
desires, and clearly overwhelming demands before and DURING their service.

  The counter (championed, for some reason, pretty exclusively by Republicans
for some reason) is "Not so.  We were elected to do as we see fit; to serve our
function according to our own sense of priorities and independent of even the
most fervent and contrary public demand.  We campaigned on our own priorities
and it is OUR priorities that we will use to make decisions, not the people's."

  So.

  Put simply, does the direct responsibility of a politician (neutral term, 
minus the automatic derision that tends to ride the definition) to the public 
end upon election and take a back seat to blind trust in the office-holder's 
personal values, or does that direct responsibility carry THROUGH the term as 
a progressive mandate of the people?

  I mean, are we voting for people to represent US or to represent THEMSELVES
during the course of a given term?

  (See...  The answer seems obvious to me, but I have a feeling there might 
not be universal agreement on this and want to see what fundamentals that 
breaks down to.)

       [daemon]                 
       In the shuffling madness...


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