Post by ShivaTD on Nov 14, 2013 11:56:33 GMT
While there have been numerous articles addressing the obstructionism of the Tea Party members in Congress perhaps the following story about Republican freshman Rep. Ted Yoho of Florida is especially revealing.
It is no surprise that people will typically migrate to areas of the country that reflect their political ideology so we do have concentrated pockets, such as Yoho's district, where there is an overwhelming political opinion. This is no different than the whack-o militia types locating in Idaho in the past or of overt racists predominately living in the Southern former Confederate states. Another recent story on where retirees go showed that places like Austin and Dallas/Ft Worth TX were a favorite destinations for Republicans while places like San Francisco CA was a favorite destination for Democrats.
Rep. Yoho is concerned with his little tiny Republican enclave of Tea Party extremists because it's only their opinions that matters when it comes to his election. 22,000 extremist Tea Party Republicans elected him and they are the only people he cares about. He couldn't care less about 300 million Americans so long as he pleases just 22,000 of them that will ensure his re-election in 2014.
This is not to imply that Rep. Yoho shouldn't care about his constituency but the problem lies when he becomes only concerned with his constituency and not the nation as a whole. The Congress is responsible for the entire nation and not just for 22,000 people in Rep. Yoho's district and Rep. Yoho has to place the interests of the Nation above the interests of his small 20,000 constituents. Even in a much more limited sense Rep. Yoho is also the representative of the 35% of the voters that voted against him in 2012. A "majority" opinion is not always the right opinion in the affairs of the nation.
This is where the Tea Party Congressional members are failing the nation because they disregard what is best for America and instead are solely concerned with the pleasing extremism of their constituency. They're placing re-election above the interests of the United States and that is simply wrong. Sometimes a politician has to choose what is best for the nation as a whole even if it costs them the next election. In a very real sense the politician needs to be more intelligent than their constituency when it comes to addressing the issues confronting the nation but Tea Party Congressional members don't seem to have this attribute and allow the opinions of their constituency to determine their votes on legislative matters.
Political ideology is wonderful and there is room for diverse political ideologies in America but when it comes to ruling the nation the interests of the nation supersede myopic political ideologies and that is a lesson the Tea Party Congressional members have yet to learn. They only care about the "22,000" that elected them as opposed to the over "300 million" Americans that they are sworn to serve.
"I ran on what I stood up to do," Yoho said after defying party leaders and voting against a bipartisan measure to raise the debt ceiling and end last month's government shutdown. "And I got elected on that," he said.
Yoho and many colleagues were elected by a conservative subset of a conservative subset of a conservative subset. It helps explain why they often stick to hard-right positions their party leaders oppose, and why they shrug off polls showing the overall Republican Party's approval ratings plummeted during the shutdown episode.
First, the Republican-controlled Florida government redrew Yoho's district — after the 2010 census and national House reapportionment — to be safely conservative for any GOP nominee.
In last year's primary, Yoho won with 21,717 votes, edging 12-term incumbent Cliff Stearns. That's about one-ten thousandth of all U.S. adults. And it's roughly one-six thousandth of the Americans who voted in the last presidential election.
Once Yoho ousted Stearns, the general election was never in doubt. He won with 65 percent of the vote.
news.yahoo.com/many-house-republicans-gop-crisis-081422611.html
Yoho and many colleagues were elected by a conservative subset of a conservative subset of a conservative subset. It helps explain why they often stick to hard-right positions their party leaders oppose, and why they shrug off polls showing the overall Republican Party's approval ratings plummeted during the shutdown episode.
First, the Republican-controlled Florida government redrew Yoho's district — after the 2010 census and national House reapportionment — to be safely conservative for any GOP nominee.
In last year's primary, Yoho won with 21,717 votes, edging 12-term incumbent Cliff Stearns. That's about one-ten thousandth of all U.S. adults. And it's roughly one-six thousandth of the Americans who voted in the last presidential election.
Once Yoho ousted Stearns, the general election was never in doubt. He won with 65 percent of the vote.
news.yahoo.com/many-house-republicans-gop-crisis-081422611.html
It is no surprise that people will typically migrate to areas of the country that reflect their political ideology so we do have concentrated pockets, such as Yoho's district, where there is an overwhelming political opinion. This is no different than the whack-o militia types locating in Idaho in the past or of overt racists predominately living in the Southern former Confederate states. Another recent story on where retirees go showed that places like Austin and Dallas/Ft Worth TX were a favorite destinations for Republicans while places like San Francisco CA was a favorite destination for Democrats.
Rep. Yoho is concerned with his little tiny Republican enclave of Tea Party extremists because it's only their opinions that matters when it comes to his election. 22,000 extremist Tea Party Republicans elected him and they are the only people he cares about. He couldn't care less about 300 million Americans so long as he pleases just 22,000 of them that will ensure his re-election in 2014.
This is not to imply that Rep. Yoho shouldn't care about his constituency but the problem lies when he becomes only concerned with his constituency and not the nation as a whole. The Congress is responsible for the entire nation and not just for 22,000 people in Rep. Yoho's district and Rep. Yoho has to place the interests of the Nation above the interests of his small 20,000 constituents. Even in a much more limited sense Rep. Yoho is also the representative of the 35% of the voters that voted against him in 2012. A "majority" opinion is not always the right opinion in the affairs of the nation.
This is where the Tea Party Congressional members are failing the nation because they disregard what is best for America and instead are solely concerned with the pleasing extremism of their constituency. They're placing re-election above the interests of the United States and that is simply wrong. Sometimes a politician has to choose what is best for the nation as a whole even if it costs them the next election. In a very real sense the politician needs to be more intelligent than their constituency when it comes to addressing the issues confronting the nation but Tea Party Congressional members don't seem to have this attribute and allow the opinions of their constituency to determine their votes on legislative matters.
Political ideology is wonderful and there is room for diverse political ideologies in America but when it comes to ruling the nation the interests of the nation supersede myopic political ideologies and that is a lesson the Tea Party Congressional members have yet to learn. They only care about the "22,000" that elected them as opposed to the over "300 million" Americans that they are sworn to serve.