The 17 are probably doing the will of the people in their district. That's the real truth to be dealt with. They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.
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If all Congresscritters do is "the will of the people" then WE DON'T NEED THEM. All we have to do is take polls and make laws from them.
Wait, that's called "mob rule."
The job of anyone in Congress is to vote according to the majority in their district, or lose come election time.
How would you like a Representative in your area, if the majority are conservatives, voting against the majority and voting any way they please?
That Rep. would not remain in office very long.
Wait a minute, what on God's earth did you think Democracy was if it's not mob rule?!! The majority(50.1% or greater) forces the rest to do what they think is right. That's a mob governing/ruling the rest of the population. Immanuel Kant said it best, but I doubt most of you know whom that is.
"Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion may differ, the will of all is therefore not that of all: which is contradictory and opposite to liberty." --written in 1795