Posted by Dan Ewert : 3/09/2003 09:20:00 PM (Archive Link)
Check out highlights of Jamie Lee Curtis’s appearance on The View. Curtis is of the opinion that the millions that turned out in protests against war amount to more than a focus group and that the president is required to follow them. That’s not the case. It’s also illustrative of a big misconception about our government. People seem to think that their elected representatives are beholden to their constituents to do what they say. That’s not the case at all. You might be able to make the argument in an abstract sense but not literal. This isn’t a direct democracy, it’s a democratic republic. That means you elect people who you think will accurately reflect your own views in government. If they don’t, then you vote against them in the next election cycle. In the meantime, however, they may opine and vote in whatever way their own conscience leads them. They follow the will of the people in order to be reelected and to preserve their own political party’s prominence.