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[bryant]

Politicans can be so gutless.

"If we try to make defense, foreign policy the overriding issue we will lose, because the country is with the president on this issue," [Representative Martin] Frost said. I'm gonna go out on a limb here: perhaps you should not be making policy decisions based on what will win elections, but rather on what you believe? Or what you said when you ran for office?

Comments

Actually...

[dtm]

First off, the person quoted was talking about what to stress to the public during an election, not how to vote on policy questions. As such, the comment makes perfect sense.

Secondly, there are many people who believe that Representatives should in fact vote exactly as they think their constituents would if they had access to the same information. (And the same time to consider things, etc.) In other words, if a representative honestly believes that his constituents are idiots, he is supposed to vote idiotically. (And, in this case, if a representative believes his people are raving war hawks, he should vote for war) It's the Senator who is supposed to exercise his own judgement.

Re: Actually...

[bryant]

Your two points are mutually contradictory.

If a Representative's job is to vote as his or her constituents would, then there is no need to stress anything in particular during an election. In fact, it's wrong to push a particular point of view on the constituents.

In any case: no, I don't think it makes "perfect sense" to emphasize the issues that will help you win during elections, unless you look at elections as a sporting contest.