Posted on 06/21/2014 9:30:39 AM PDT by PoloSec
Representatives, as a group, like just about everybody else in the world, put what they see as their own interests ahead of everybody else's.
A representative's most important self-interest is in re-election. If those he is representing make it perfectly clear to him that certain positions will greatly reduce his chance of re-election, that position will quickly be dropped.
This is, to my mind, most obviously seen in the erosion of support in Congress for "gun control" in the last few decades. A few decades back, gun control was a consensus position, and only those from truly conservative districts opposed it strongly.
As public opinion has shifted on the issue, so did that in Congress. While it is probable reps from mildly right to mildly left districts still personally would like to see gun control passed, they are unwilling to imperil re-election by voting that way. So today only reps from truly liberal districts are willing to vote for gun control.
Most reps don't want to offend their constituents on either side of this issue, which is why gun control measures tend to not make it to an up or down vote.
The reason this has worked is not that reps really care about public opinion. If they did they'd pay equal attention to public opinion on other issues such as immigration.
It happened because the NRA and other grass-roots organizations were able to mobilize that public opinion into effective pressure groups that would actually swing elections. This is why the Left hates the NRA so much, opposing it and the public opinion it represents really will lose politicians elections.
For conservatives to be equally effective on other issues, such as immigration, where public opinion is on our side, requires similar organization. The problem is that mobilizing such effective grass roots support requires not just public opinion in its favor, it requires intense public opinion. That is present in the case of gun freedoms. Not so much with regard to immigration.
Shazam!
Something may be going down now.
There is now, basically no aircraft traffic versus a lot in the past week in the Baghdad area and airport.
In the past week, there has been a constant flow of north and south bound passenger and freight planes over Baghdad a little east and flying into the airport for landings and takeoffs.
http://www.flightradar24.com/33.33,44.28/8
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