Let us assume that you are an honest and conscientious up-and-coming young politician who manages to win election to a district which might go either way and you become a representative in the United States Congress. If you want to do the right thing, your first problem is you must buck the structure of your own party.
The structure of your own party is determined by Representatives who have attained authority and responsibility by virtue of their survivability and tenure. They learned that if they permit their party to be painted as the party without compassion, that is the party of fiscal responsibility, the party loses power and they themselves risk losing their sinecure. So the leadership of the Republican Party is disinclined to suffer Mavericks in the ranks and certainly disinclined to permit the party to become tainted with the real essence of reform. They know the Democrats will quite literally charge them with throwing grandma over the Cliff. They know the donors of their own party expect the preferences of corporate welfare. They know the consequences of governing responsibly. Every pressure in Washington makes them disinclined to do so.
Their disinclination is reinforced by the fact that they know that they will not get an even chance in the media. They know they will be depicted to the electorate as mean-spirited. They know the media will seek out and concentrate on some diversionary topic such as the misbehavior of one of their members, and so indoctrinate the electorate that they will throw the election against those who advocate fiscal responsibility.
So you as a young and up and coming libertarian reformer are very soon faced with the choice of crying in the wilderness or becoming a careerist. The system is so strong that virtually everyone goes along to get along.
Senators and the President face similar structural problems.
Ultimately we should think about pointing the fingers at ourselves because we are the ones who make ourselves susceptible to pandering, payoffs, and propaganda.
There is, after all, a school of thought that says that in a democracy the people ultimately get the government they deserve.
