It's Time For Another Installment Of "Gosh, Ya Think...?"

[filkertom]

Lovely quote from a Politico story about the health care vote, by way of dKos:

Rep. Chet Edwards, a Texas Democrat who remains a firm "no," said he’s getting calls spurred by Organizing for America, the president’s unofficial outreach arm. He said he’s fine with constituents expressing their opinions — and even with the right of OFA to engage — but noted of the Obama organization, "It’s clear to me they could care less about my political future."

Gosh, ya think...?

You weren't voted into office because people somehow thought you deserved a political career, fella. You were voted into office to do a job. That job is to serve the public, to -- what's that title imply again? -- represent the people. If you don't do that job to the peoples' satisfaction, they have the right to vote your inept ass out.

At least you recognize that the people you're supposed to serve have a hand in your "political future". What you don't yet get is that they are your political future. Serve them well, and you'll probably continue to have one. Don't, and... well, there are lots of people doing the math.

ETA: Grammatical correction.

Comments

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

Me thinks that there will be a lot of new faces in the House this election season. Neither party is safe from the fairly big anti-incumbent streak that's in the wind.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

s/infer/imply (One of my grammatical peeves.)

Time to sing "Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey (Goodbye)", methinks.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

You're right. I even tried to quote the old Cerebus riff, "No, you see, the listener infers --" "I-KNOW-THE-DIFFERENCE!"

[chaosdancer.livejournal.com]

Oh, I hope you plan on dashing this guy a quick note saying exactly that! It's something they need to hear, apparently (though I really didn't imagine until now anyone would honestly be that stupid).

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

To give him credit, Edwards is barely getting re-elected in a district that was specifically gerrymandered to get him thrown out of office.

And, as Wikipedia says about him, he's a consistent liberal vote on most other issues.

I think, though, that even if he's a consistent no vote on health insurance reform, the Republicans will still tar him as a reform supporter. The Republican nomination in that district is going to a runoff between Edwards' 2008 opponent (who got 45% of the vote) and a deep-pocketed businessman named Bill Flores. Edwards is definitely feeling the pressure- and probably, to be honest, doesn't have much faith in the bill as it's going to be passed in the first place.

[gan-chan.livejournal.com]

The problem is in Chet Edwards' district, there are a lot of "them" and not nearly enough of "us."

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Any elected official, regardless of party, philosophy, or affiliation, who is more concerned about his own "political future" than whether he's doing the right thing should be immediately and irrevocably shit-canned. The people pushing term limits are trying to speak to this, but they still don't have it right, because most term-limited politicians are still campaigning for their next job while they're serving in their current one. When the aliens arrive and pick me to advise them on the government they'll impose, one of the provisions of the new constitution will be that no one can run for any significant office during a term of office they've been elected to. You can be elected as often as the electorate picks you, for the same office or different ones, but you always have to sit out a term between terms serving; this means that you won't be campaigning for election while you're supposed to be doig the people's business, and hopefully will give the people voting on you some perspective on your past record.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

In this case, though, his political future is his constituents. Obama wants the House Democrats, especially the progressives, to fall on their swords for the Senate Health Insurance Bill.

[nomaddervish.livejournal.com]

The question is, though, which people is it his job to serve?

I say that it's his job to serve his constituents - the people who live in his district and voted either for or against him. There's a distressing tendency in the US these days to presume that the primary duty of politicians is to represent their party and, from where I sit, that's just plain wrong. The dead white guys who set up the US government weren't all that keen on political parties in general, precisely because they lead to the kind of seat-counting by party that we're seeing so much of lately, especially where health reform is concerned. "Party loyalty" may be a great virtue in parliaments, but it's supposed to be entirely absent from the US Congress.

Personally, I applaud every congresscritter who makes the effort of not just blindly voting along party lines, regardless of whether the vote they cast is one that I agree with or not. If they do so in order to cast a vote supporting a position that their constituents actually approve of, rather than that which their party leaders endorse, then all the better.

In the case at hand, perhaps he was making a clumsy attempt at saying, "I'm telling the Obama organization to take a flying leap because they're trying to pressure me into casting a vote which I do not believe would serve my constituents", no? (OTOH, I don't know jack about Edwards or his district, so I don't claim that this necessarily is the reason he opposes OFA's position.)

[capt-amos.livejournal.com]

This.
And I will add I have not seen any current polls where the majority want this particular Health Bill passed. So a vote no on this particular bill IS serving the people, IMO.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Mm. Thing is, the poll interps are somewhat disingenuous on this one. The reason most of 'em are "the majority of voters don't want it passed" is because our Reality Interpreters combine the people who don't want anything passed with the sizable contingent of those who do want something passed and don't think this bill goes far enough. If they switched the phrasing to, "the number of people who want either this or even further-reaching health care reform", the majority would swing that way.

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

The latest poll I heard today had a plurality in favor, with the stronglys on both sides close.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

There are a couple of interesting questions that are deeper than I mean to try to answer. (1) is a representative supposed to do what's good for his constituents, or is he supposed to do what they want? (2) is a representative supposed to do what's good for his own constituents at the expense of the rest of the country, or is he really supposed to he looking out for the country as a whole?

What gets me is how so many representatives act as if they don't care about either one, except to the extent that they advance his real concern, keeping his position.