Politicians presume we accept their priorities when they earn our votes. Maybe not. Often, our votes for politicians reflect (a) our dissatisfaction with their predecessor's ability/willingness to follow our agenda or (b) our sense that, on election day, their campaign slogans are closer to our agenda of the moment than their opponents' campaign slogans.
The inconvenient thing about representative government is that the elected are expected to actually represent the voters. The "represent" requirement is uncomfortable for ideologues of whatever stripe. Their ideology tells them what they should be doing and the voters often have another, perhaps shifting set of priorities.
Over the last two years the Democrats' sin was hubris, arrogance. Democrats believed they knew what was good for us instead of presuming we voters knew what was good for us. Unfortunately for them, we were paying attention to what they were doing, supposedly on our behalf. And we didn't like it. This election will reflect that dislike.
Here at COTTonLINE we have written on several occasions that successful governing in a republic isn't difficult. It consists of determining, using polling, what the public wants and getting it done. To be successful politicians, those who govern need to be seen to have accomplished the public's goals. If they manage to accomplish some of their own goals along the way without irritating the public, fine.
