[quote=dumbrenter]
SK, I don’t want to get into a partisan argument. My point is pretty simple:
The Senators have a motivation to get re-elected. If they communicated wrong, they get punished by their states.
The media polls are run by folks whose motivation is unknown at the very least.
If you believe that the senators can get away by voting against something that “overwhelming majorities” support, you essentially are saying we are not living in a democracy.[/quote]
We aren’t living in a democracy. I’m not talking about dictionary definitions of democracies or “federal republics” or whatever. I’m talking about to whom our politicians listen. If a Senator’s (or any politician’s) motivation is to get reelected (which it usually is), then only part of their strategy for reelection is to do what their voting constituents want. And part is to do what special interests want. Money buys influence, and that influence isn’t necessarily proportional to the number of people whom that influence benefits. It’s easily possible that a senator would choose to vote against a vast majority of his constituents on a particular issue if he thinks that going against them on that one issue will hurt his overall chance of getting reelected less than going against a particularly powerful special interest group would.
