Shit's going down today
Jan. 30th, 2006 08:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lapsedmodernistFollow all the latest developments on the Alito filibuster here
There is still time to make phone calls. Most of the mailboxes seem to be full, but I was able to talk to a live person at Senator Salazar's office (202) 228-3630 and at Senator Reed's office (202) 224-4642. Call them (or anyone else you can get a hold of), urge them to either support the filibuster or to abstain from the cloture vote.
Update: I was also able to talk to a live person at Senator Byrd's office, to whom I expressed that I was particularly disappointed in Senator Byrd because he is one of the few senators I generally expect to do right by America. [NB: rumor has it he especially is fond of handwritten missives, he thinks they are more spontaneous and less partisan, so if you have a couple of minutes and a fax machine, fax him a handwritten note].
All offices open in a few minutes...even if the voicemails are full, there will be live people at the switchboards now. Call, people, call!
Also, excuse me, Governor Kaine, but I just read that The Virginia Democrat said he will not adjust his speech to placate the party's base. "I'm not anybody's mouthpiece or shill or poster boy for that matter. I'm going to say what I think needs to be said and they seem very comfortable with that.". Uh, isn't placating the party's base sort of YOUR JOB? Isn't the whole point of representative democracy, like, REPRESENTING? If it's your party's BASE, doesn't it mean, by DEFINITION, that you ARE supposed to be the mouthpiece for them, unless you are a traitor like Zell Miller who hijacks his office and malicioiusly fails to do his job?
There is still time to make phone calls. Most of the mailboxes seem to be full, but I was able to talk to a live person at Senator Salazar's office (202) 228-3630 and at Senator Reed's office (202) 224-4642. Call them (or anyone else you can get a hold of), urge them to either support the filibuster or to abstain from the cloture vote.
Update: I was also able to talk to a live person at Senator Byrd's office, to whom I expressed that I was particularly disappointed in Senator Byrd because he is one of the few senators I generally expect to do right by America. [NB: rumor has it he especially is fond of handwritten missives, he thinks they are more spontaneous and less partisan, so if you have a couple of minutes and a fax machine, fax him a handwritten note].
All offices open in a few minutes...even if the voicemails are full, there will be live people at the switchboards now. Call, people, call!
Also, excuse me, Governor Kaine, but I just read that The Virginia Democrat said he will not adjust his speech to placate the party's base. "I'm not anybody's mouthpiece or shill or poster boy for that matter. I'm going to say what I think needs to be said and they seem very comfortable with that.". Uh, isn't placating the party's base sort of YOUR JOB? Isn't the whole point of representative democracy, like, REPRESENTING? If it's your party's BASE, doesn't it mean, by DEFINITION, that you ARE supposed to be the mouthpiece for them, unless you are a traitor like Zell Miller who hijacks his office and malicioiusly fails to do his job?
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Date: 2006-01-30 04:19 pm (UTC)well, than a lot of things.
:)
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Date: 2006-01-30 07:06 pm (UTC)http://www.bluemassgroup.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1335
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Date: 2006-01-31 02:39 am (UTC)My interpretation of Reprentative Democracy is that we democratically elect representatives who we believe will Do The Right Thing [tm] -- which we might not agree was the right thing at the time! -- based on their understanding and interpretation of the facts, including getting sufficiently educated on relevant matters to make those decisions more grounded and less based on seat-of-pants flying....
Pure Democracy is a recipe for tyranny by the majority. Enforced "representation" of the style you describe is little different from pure democracy, and reduces those representatives to messengers -- who really need not spend their time educating themselves or others in the matters with which they've been charged.
I don't believe that *anyone*, politico or otherwise, should say or do things just to placate their patrons/electors/sponsors/what-have-you. I think that by doing so, they risk (and generally do) becoming the worst of what people think of when they think of "politicians" -- saying what they believe their audience wants to hear, not what they believe is right or true... and worse, *acting* on that basis.
If those elected reprentatives cannot explain why they've voted and acted as they have when the next election comes around, they can and should be voted out of office -- but if they can explain their time in office satisfactorily, even if they *still* aren't doing as their electors might have thought they wanted -- they can and should be REelected, for they're doing the job and fulfilling the office ot which they've been elected.
There are lots of things that our congress critters should be ashamed of saying, doing, and ignoring. But on this front, I can't say I agree with your ranty snippet...
(However -- I DO agree that Alito should *not* be confirmed, and that the filibuster now appears to be the last hope in that direction, though it be a rather forlorn one.)