A Generation from Now, This Will All Seem Silly.

Republicans are gonna jump up and down screaming today that Missouri voters yesterday saying NO to "Obamacare" indicates that the American people are dead set against healthcare reform/socialism/nanny state blah blah blah.

But of course legislative history isn't usually made by "the people;" for example there's no way in hell the Civil Rights Act in the 1960's would've passed if it was up to the US population, but a handful of men decided it was the right thing to do, and only a generation later the idea of separate drinking fountains is unfathomable to us. And the same could be said for Truman desegregating the military.

I'm sure there are plenty of bills that have sailed through Congress - for example, those extending tax loophole after loophole to billionaire corporations - that if presented to the public would be met with extreme derision, and yet these are the times Congress has voted "with the courage of their convictions."


As I incredibly brilliantly wrote HERE, Congress uses "the will of the people!" when it is personally convenient for them:

The UG says "fuck public opinion!!," which is interesting since if Congress actually took "public opinion" seriously, this bill would've been passed months ago, as per every single poll I've seen. I've noticed that when politicians want something, they go ahead and do it "for the good of the people." When a Congressman himself is in favor of a bill, he doesn't seem to spend a lot of time going to Town Hall meetings or "on the streets meeting with my constituents." And yet when they DON'T want something, they seem to spend a lot of time "listening to my constituents," and furrowing their brows worrying if it's what "my constituents want," worried that if a single person disagrees with him, it is one too many, and "public opinion" must dictate that he vote "no." And so, even in the face of such un-scientific, non-quantifying things as "counting numbers," they vote how they want to anyway.