How many of you would like to hear this from your elected Representative?

Raised holy hell with my Rep for voting twice for cash for clunkers. Told him if I wanted a Democrat, I would voted for the real thing, instead of a liberal lite. If he said something like that I would contact the other Representatives in the state and demand impeachment.

I pretty much got a similar response from Senator Jay Rockefeller in a form letter. I wasn't surprised, but I now know from his own office where he stands and can share the information with others. I didn't expect a personalized response and don't have the time or money to go see him. I'll take what I can get and use it so that any arguments I make can be backed by fact.

It depends.

Are you expecting your representative to act as a delegate in all matters, expecting him to vote as you would vote? Or do you expect your representative to act as a trustee, listening and weighing options, finding compromise where it is useful and available, etc., and exercising good judgment?

Our representatives frequently act in both roles. When they are smart, it is to the benefit of our society.

"You have no idea what they hell you want, I know far better than you what is best for you"

I realize you probably never studied constitutional law much, but that is more or less the point of a republican form of government. The representatives have access to information that the layman doesn't. Direct democracy would devolve to mob rule, so we vote for representatives who can vote in our best interests.

If you actually read the whole paragraph or speech, you'd see that he was specifically only talking about healthcare. Though that may be a bad mentality, it's not like he's expanding it to every issue.

Yes it's a whole lot better to vote for the guy that says "I will make the difficult decisions, even if those decisions are unpopular"

...Do we vote who we want in to do what we say? Or do we vote people in because they know better than us so we trust them to do what is best?

All depends on your point of view..

That is exactly what mine is doing now and I may have to seriously help in giving him the boot next election.He is a *** Republican!

Sounds great to me. I don't think he's saying you don't know what the hell you want. He's saying that he reserves the right to disagree, and use his own judgment.

That's exactly what a representative should do. The whole notion of a republic is to elect officials to make decisions on issues the masses aren't capable of doing themselves.