Each representative is only responsible to his/her constituents, no one else, at least that is what is supposed to happen. We should only be criticizing the other guys representative IF they have broken the law or not met their oath of office. Otherwise, we are demanding that all republicans/democrats vote the same, which is what the constant chant of RINO type comments means. Would you like someone from NY telling your representative/senator how to vote?
It is very frustrating and I have committed the same "sins" myself so I am pointing the finger at me too....
That's a very good point. Each representative and senator is responsible to his or her constituents. A GOPer from a blue state will sometimes have to vote for a liberal idea in order to do that, and a dim from a red state will also sometimes have to vote for a conservative idea. And even among states, conservatives from one state might not agree with conservatives from another. For a prime example, fiscal conservatives and social conservatives will often have different priorities.
But if anything is going to get done, all of the elected officials will at times have to trade votes. They'll support an idea from one state in return for an important vote for their own. I doubt that anyone really wants to keep the status quo, so we really have to want our elected representatives and senators to make decisions about when to trade votes. We might not always agree with the choices they make, but if we "throw them out", the next one might not make any better choices.
And the President should, IMO, work with Congress to find solutions that reflect what most of the states want. Not what most of the people want, because this is, after all, a representative republic.
Discussing ideas and actions we'd like to see happen seems to me to be more productive than talking about individual congress members, esp. ones who are not from our own states. I have had some in my state I'd like to see stay for 50 or 60 years, because they represent my state quite well. There are others I'd like to see dumped ASAP. But people from other states might not see it the same way as I do, even ones who are on the same part of the political spectrum as I am.
