Holy Jeebus!

What does “electing someone to represent you” mean?

So, here’s a topic for discussion. Is it an elected representative’s responsibility to vote his conscience, or to vote according to the wishes of his constituency, when those two viewpoints conflict? Now, I know you can’t always trust polling to guide your every move, but there are cases in which you can get a fairly irrefutable picture of what the people in your district want. What should a representative do if his/her personal views run counter to those of his constituency?

I’m of the mind that the person is elected to represent me and those around me, so he/she should gain an understanding of what we want and vote that way. The counter-argument is you elect someone based on who they are, and they vote how they vote, and your only recourse is to vote them out when they don’t follow your wishes. Our system is so protective of incumbents, though, that I think I have to reject this argument.

What comes to mind when thinking about this is the Ted Kennedy/Scott Brown thing. It’s hard to consider that these two guys were elected by and represent the same constituency. Whether your view of this election is that Kennedy was a guy who’s district had moved away from him on the political spectrum and he only managed to stay on due to incumbency/legacy, or you think Brown only won because he ran a good campaign and the alternative was just so bad, you have to admit that one of them has or had political views quite different from his constituency.

So, for example: if Brown was opposed to the healthcare bill and the people he represents clearly wanted it, how should he have voted? Vice versa, if Kennedy worked for years to pass such a bill, but it became clear that his district didn’t favor it, how should he have voted (had he been alive)?

None of this even touches on what happens when the representative’s party has a view contrary to his/her constituency, because I really don’t think that should enter into it: voting your conscience or voting for your constituency should be the only two options, though I recognize that is unfortunately just not how it works.

Your thoughts?