I chose extreme examples to make a point: To say there would never be an instance where an elected representative could not be conflicted by his or her own definition of morality or ethicallity—vs his constituents—is naieve.
If you are correct, the civil rights movement would have been stillborn. Some democrat and a potload of pubbie office holders voted for the end of segregation in the face of what their constituents wanted.
If you are correct, many Congresscritters voted for women’s suffrage despite what a majority of their contsituents wanted.
That said, I am most vigorously opposed to Obamacare. But not because of a moral or ethical issue. I oppose it because I believe it is born of a political system that has failed where ever it’s been tried. And, I believe the primary reason dems and RINOs are pushing Onadacare has more to do with power than it does my health. I also believe the program will be mismanaged just like every other government program that has been implemented.
The government, afterall, is a far larger generator of fraud, waste and abuse than the private sector.
Never say never. When the representative cannot agree with his constituents, it has always been on the side of a moral and ethical issue, in which the representative has the job of caller the constituentcy to higher ground. The representative can vote anyway he desires, and the consequences are a strong possiblitity of not being re-elected.
The civil rights movement existed independently of any action in Washington, and by 1964 it was clear a majority of the country favored civil rights protections. The only solid opposition was in the solid South—The DEMOCRAT solid south, which pretty much voted en bloc against the bill.
As for women’s suffrage—there was not a vote per se, other than for a constitutional amendment, which then had to be ratified by 2/3rds of the states. For it to pass, obviously a lot of state representatives, who are even closer to, and more accountable to, the people than federal representatives had to be in favor of suffrage.
You are correct that Obama care is born of a political system that is a universal failure—precisely a failure becaue it is immoral and unethical to take one person’s labor and redistribute without permmission to someone else.