Representative Democracy

Democracy means "rule by the people". Are we a democracy? Are we ruled "by the people"? Kinda sorta. Democracy is a continuum. On one end is what we call "direct democracy". This is a polity where any decision that affects all the people is voted upon by all the people, and those decisions are then implemented by all of the people.  In a direct democracy there would be no leaders, and no government either. As you can imagine, this would only be workable in a small community of like-minded individuals. Most communities that we think of as democracies are representative democracies. There are various types of representative democracies. Some elect a few administrators who then appoint officials to carry out their mandates.  Others elect virtually everyone who has a public function. In the United States, the legislature, which makes the laws, is chosen by people in various districts based on either population or state boundaries. The whole country votes for the chief executive, the president, who executes the laws and oversees the administrative duties of government. The executive and the legislature together appoint judges who interpret the law and mediate disputes between the executive and the legislative branches. Citizens theoretically vote for candidates who they believe will best represent their interests. They trust that, once elected, their candidate will prove to be what they thought he was.

What elected officials aren't elected to do is to take a poll every time a decision needs to be made in order to do what the majority says that they should do. That's direct democracy, not representative democracy.

This surprises many people who believe that a representative is required to do what the majority of people in her district or state want. What the members of Congress are required to do is support and defend the Constitution of the United States against ALL ENEMIES, FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC. If what the folks back home want is at odds with the oath that was taken, the a member of Congress must defer to supporting and defending the Constitution. There is also the expectation that the member will act in an ethical and moral manner and support acts that are in accordance with that foundation. An educated voter will know what the moral foundation of a candidate is before casting a vote and should have a good idea how he will act once in office. Of course, a candidate may lie about her intentions, or succumb to special interests' campaign donations. The remedy is the next election.

The motivation for writing this article came from a video I saw of an angry crowd that was yelling at their member of Congress who was attempting to explain her reasons for voting to impeach Trump. She was a Democrat who represented a district that had voted for Trump in 2016. Twitter was full of angry denunciations (which was their right) and threats to vote her out of office in 2020 (also their right). A common thread throughout many of the tweets was the demand that she vote the way her district wanted to vote. This, as I have already stated, betrays a lack of understanding of the role of an elected representative.

I don't know why this district flipped from voting for Trump to electing a Democrat in 2018, but by electing a Democrat, the voters of this district should have known that they were not electing a Trump enabler. Many Democrats who ran for office in Trump districts vowed to work with the Republicans, but that requires some compromise on the part of the Republicans, compromise that has not materialized. The voters of this district should have known that a Democrat would look at the evidence and not mindlessly support Trump and McConnell. If they wanted a Trump apologist, there was probably one running against her. Obviously, the majority of the voters in that district didn't want more of the Trump Train Wreck.

On the other hand, a member of Congress from New Jersey, convinced that he would not be re-elected if he voted to impeach Trump, met with Trump at the White House and announced, not only that he would be voting "no" on impeachment, but that he would be switching parties. No word on what his constituents think, but most of his staff just resigned.

In both of these cases, the Representatives did what they thought was either right, or maybe just what they thought was expedient, but it was their decision. The voters in their districts can decide in 2020 whether or not they want them to stay on.