Elected officials should speak for their constituents
Advertisement
Text size: small | medium | large
Bob Lehmann
Published: April 24, 2008
In Bob Beard’s guest column (“School Board was responsive,” April 19), I noticed an underlying theme of how elected officials will always represent you, the people who elected them, and will always be working for you.
So, we elect them, taking their word that they will represent us. That, to me, means they will act as our representative (collectively) in the government process and will represent our majority interests whether they personally like them or not.
After all, that is why we elected them. They were not necessarily elected for their great intellect, but for what they told people they would do for them.
In the column, Mr. Beard said he listened to what his constituents said and then did the opposite of what they wanted using a philosophical quote from Burke in 1774.
Is this what our elected officials do now?
This is one man on the School Board. What about elected officials on the Town Council, Board of Supervisors, senators, etc.?
Who now represents us, the small people without lots of money or influence, who don’t own businesses, etc.? This is now the real democracy of the 21st century.
I feel this way even though I do not have any children.
Bob Lehmann
Culpeper
Page 1 of 1
Post a Comment
The commenting period has ended or commenting has been deactivated for this article.
Can't find what you're looking for? Try our quick search:
Reader Reactions
Posted by ( J Billings ) on April 24, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Curious, Bob: You think that we should ignore quotes from 1776 (Declaration of Independence) and 1781 (United States Constitution) as well? They’re pretty old, too, and probably should be ignored, I guess.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Posted by ( KTrick ) on April 24, 2008 at 3:01 pm
“Elected Officials should speak for their constituents…“
Great! It’s about time the CSE ran a humor piece!
Report Inappropriate Comment
Posted by ( rjma ) on April 24, 2008 at 9:02 am
I don’t think that elected leaders are beholden to do as the majority wants. They are elected by the majority (mostly) but they are not supposed to take polls on what the people want done and do that. They are supposed to do what they think is the best thing that serves the interest of their constituents the best. If the voters come to think they have not done that, they they vote them out.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Posted by ( Last Man Standing ) on April 24, 2008 at 6:58 am
Our government is a republic not a direct democracy. Does the letter writer want our elected officials to poll each and every constituent on each and every vote they make?
Or should our elected officals listen to constituents, view and review the facts and then vote?
Should an elected official vote how the suppposed “majority” wants him to even though he believes and knows it will negatively impact the students.
Perhaps people should give a little more respect to our elected officials.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Posted by ( El Debibble ) on April 24, 2008 at 6:13 am
Bob, you forgot about the voice of the “33000” who don’t vote but think they should have some say.
Report Inappropriate Comment
Posted by ( J Billings ) on April 24, 2008 at 6:08 am
I expect that if all our elected representatives did what everybody wanted all the time, we would have larger schools, free health care, more police, and no taxes at all. No problem there.
Report Inappropriate Comment