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kalm wrote:Stealing off a couple of comments from Chizzang, Ivy, and UNI88 in some other threads, do we elect politicians to lead or to represent? I can see it both ways and I'm curious what everyone else thinks.

UNI88 wrote:... An elected official has a responsibility to represent their constituents to the best of their ability and it is a judgment call whether that means voting exactly as their constituency would want or taking a different position because the official thinks it is the right thing to do. It is the voters job to understand this possibility and take it into account when deciding who to vote for.

UNI88 wrote:

kalm wrote:Stealing off a couple of comments from Chizzang, Ivy, and UNI88 in some other threads, do we elect politicians to lead or to represent? I can see it both ways and I'm curious what everyone else thinks.

I expect them to do both and to exercise their best judgement on what approach to use for a given situation.

UNI88 wrote:... An elected official has a responsibility to represent their constituents to the best of their ability and it is a judgment call whether that means voting exactly as their constituency would want or taking a different position because the official thinks it is the right thing to do. It is the voters job to understand this possibility and take it into account when deciding who to vote for.

There will be times when the popular position might not be the right position for their constituents and the country, especially in the long-term.

Wedgebuster wrote:Makes sense, while I can hardly fathom anybody electing Sarah Palin to lead, it's easy to see she could represent millions and millions of that segment that I like to refer to as The Retardlicans. And we all know there's more than enough of them around needing representation.