The primary evidence supporting my conclusion is the Immigration bill. America is united against this law that the Senate seems poised to ram through next week. But those entrenched elitists who haven't seen their own constituents in decades are poised to pass it while fully aware the majority of their constituents hope to unseat them for their arrogance.
Democrats will vote for it because that's how they roll. Regardless of how the Democrat senator personally feels about the bill, he knows that his party leaders will punish him mercilessly and he'll probably lose his seat for bucking his party. With a Democrat, his personal opinions are irrelevant and he knows it. So he toes the line and parrots the party talking points and votes according to what Harry Reid and Dick Durbin and Chuck Shumer dictate. Then he doesn't worry about angry constituents back home, because his party won't allow anybody to challenge him in a primary and he represents a deep blue state that will continue voting for him no matter what.
Republicans are a different story. The old guard is led by John McCain, who is often indistinguishable from a Democrat. McCain gets stroked by the Washington establishment for being a "maverick", and he likes it.
McCain represents a state (AZ) overrun by illegal immigrants. But in his Washington cocoon he's told every day that Jan Brewer's some sort of racist who wants to persecute people of hispanic origin. So rather than take a weekend to fly home and try to find the truth behind what's happening there, McCain accepts the slander and repeats it, to the delight of the Washington media.
The Senate this week just thumbed their noses at nearly 70 percent of Americans, who told at least one pollster that they want the border secured before any sort of amnesty is offered to illegals already here. They're ramming through a repeat of the 1986 law, with which they completely fooled Ronald Reagan with empty promises that the border would be secured. Later.
So when government succeeds in creating a ruling class that can never be removed, tyranny is next. Indiana citizens succeeded in removing Dick Lugar last time around, but failed to choose a viable replacement and ended up electing a Democrat who fits my above characterization of Democrats like a glove. So we went from bad to worse here in my home state.
I wrote to my two senators and my representative about the Immigration bill, pleading with them to stop it from passing. All three responded with form letters that made it obvious neither they nor their staff had read my actual letter, but they simply checked the box "Immigration" and sent the pre-written letter that thanks me for my letter and vaguely describes the legislator's views on the subject. So I have to conclude that constituent feedback is meaningless to those guys.
Senator Coats sent me a physical letter through the mail, which was a better touch than an email. But he was condescending, as he always is in his responses anytime I send him something. His letter sort of pats me on the head and says, "Don't worry about it, I'm in the Senate and much smarter than you, so you need to trust me to do the right thing". Needless to say I'm not a fan of Dan Coats.
Donnelly, the Democrat we allowed to take Dick Lugar's seat because we couldn't field a better candidate than Mourdock, basically said that he's still evaluating the proposed legislation but is probably going to vote for it whether I like it or not. One thing Democrats are good at is knowing who their constituents are and are not, so I'm pretty sure he knows I'm a conservative who won't ever vote for him anyway. So he doesn't feel any need to appease me or listen to my opinions.
Luke Messer is my new congressman, who took over for Mike Pence when Pence became our Governor. Luke is the only one of the three that expressed the security-first commitment. Although his letter did not address any specifics from my letter, it seemed to acknowledge that I had expressed some specific ideas and recommendations. His letter indicated that he would consider my ideas as the issue progressed through the House. So either his letter was brilliantly worded to make me think he paid attention, or he or a member of his staff may have actually read mine.
Luke Messer at least has given me a ray of hope that he might just be a representative who actually takes time to listen to his constituents.
So the only way to prove to me that our Representative Republic is not lost to the mists of history is if serious, non-elitist candidates can be recruited to take on both Donnelly and Coats next time they come up (which I think is two more cycles for Coats and 3 more for Donnelly, so it will be awhile). They're both Washington elitists who fail to represent their home state. Coats hasn't lived in Indiana for decades, and I don't think he feels the slightest sense of responsibility to those he's supposed to represent.
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