What does National mean?

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

vol_scouter writes:

If the majority pushes the congress to deny rights, then they can be denied as I outlined.

 

I already knew that. But what I said was that that's not the same as the majority voting away the rights of a minority.

 

 

[NWScouter]

My representative does all that too, newsletters and polls. He got plenty of complaints about the health care reform, most of them based on misinformation propagated by right wing scare groups. The interesting thing is he received an equal number of communications from people who did vote for him who felt he didnt go far enough. They want not just a public option but a single payer plan like Canada and the European countries. They want the insurance companies out of health care.

 

Most of the people who where at the healthcare forums, yelling and calling him names would not vote for him what ever he did. 60% of his constituents, who voted for him, knew he was for health care reform and voted for him because he was for health care reform. If you lose an election you know, as I knew during the Bush years, your ideals dont have much chance to get ahead. Winning says you have the majority and your ideals should govern what is enacted. If you los,t work to get someone else elected next time. If who you voted for betrays you, then find someone to run against him.

 

[vol_scouter]

NWScouter,

 

If 60% of your representative's constituents agree with his stance on healthcare reform, then he is voting correctly. From many articles that I have read, that is not the case in all congressional districts. I agree, that to an extent the party in power should get much of what it wants. However, if the party in power wants to pass a piece of legislation and their majority of their constituents on a district basis are against the legislation, the congressmen have a duty to not pass it no matter what the party leaders want. From what I have read, that has not been the case for some time with both parties guilty. I am in a representative democracy and wish to be represented - I do not want to be governed by elites that believe that they know better how my life should be lived than I do.

[NWScouter]

I guess all Im trying to say is if you ran under the banner of a party and the voters of a district who know what the party stood for and then voted for him. You should not be surprised that the representative voted for those things. The representative should listen to you as he listens to all the people of the district, and then votes the way he feels is best for the district and the nation. If the people of his district feel he is not representing them, then they can vote him out.

 

What I am saying if your district has been electing a representative for multiple terms as a Democrat or Republican then they are also approving him as part of that Party. I can rant and rail against Doc Hastings, or Dave Reichert, Republican reps from Washington State, but I have to feel that they are representing their district the way the people in those district want to be represented. Just the way McDermott, Smith, Inslee, Dicks, and my rep Larsen do. I feel that Baird who ran as Democrat and then didnt support the bill is betraying the people who voted for him.

 

I will have to inform you that I am a Democratic Party Leader, I hold the following offices; precinct committee officer, chair of the 38th District Legislative Democrats, 2nd Vice-chair of the Snohomish County Democratic Central Committee and Treasurer of the Washington State Democratic Chairs Organization. I find that in Washington State party leaders, they are like you and me in Scouting, not paid and given the same line Its only one hour (or meeting) a week (or month).