Rep. Karen Shepherd says that her constituents "didn't get the point" of her vote in favor of the recent deficit reduction fiasco. I'm here to tell Shepherd that she is not getting the point.
In the first place, her role as a representative in our system of government is supposed to make her very sensitive to the desires of her constituency.May I quote from one of the founders, George Mason, who said, "The House of Representatives will represent the immediate interests of the people." The role of these elected officials is to represent individuals within their voting districts collectively. Mason went on to say, "The representatives should sympathize with their constituents; should think as they think, and feel as they feel; and that for these purposes should even be residents among them." In other words, a congressman should be in total step and harmony with the constituency.
The Senate, on the other hand, serves as a check on the House in legislative matters, looks out for the individual states senators represent and also tries to look at the overall picture of the nation in making its legislative decisions.
The Senate is supposed to cool the heated passion and turbulence of the House. Alexander Hamilton remarked, "The Senate is an agent for the Union and is bound to perform services necessary to the good of the whole, even though his state should at times condemn them."
May I remind Shepherd that she was elected to the House and not the Senate. In her attempt to second-guess her own district, which polls indicate was against the Clinton budget mess by a wide margin (55 percent against), she is assuming the role of a senator by going against her own constituency. We already have two senators, thank you, and certainly don't need another.
There is one redeeming benefit out of the Shepherd vote. We know where her true loyalties lie. She is strictly partisan and not willing to listen to her own people. She doesn't represent the many in her district but the few in her congressional party back in Washington.
M. James Snarr
Farmington