Time for a Quickie

I don't want to let my own blog have an atrophy (lol, h/t to Sarah Palin who frequently uses verbs as nouns) while I'm writing for Politicalgates.  Once in a while, therefore, also too, I'll try and post on H&HT a simple phrase that boggles my mind.

Today's phrase is the frequently heard justification by politicians, "The American People want.... [fill in the blank]."

Since when do the American people speak with a unified monolithic voice? More often than not, the pol who prefaces his statement with "The American people want..." does not, in any shape or fashion speak for me.  I do not want the recently passed Health Care bill undone, for instance.  I do not want us to stop looking at ways to control guns, their ownership, their ammunition.  I do not want to get any more proof of President Obama's citizenship than what has already been proffered.  I do not want us to strip mine in West Virginia or send jobs overseas to India or drill for oil in sensitive environments like ANWR or encourage parents to pull their children out of public schools in favor of home-schooling or private schooling.

In short, any pol who declares that he/she knows what the American people want is trying very hard to pull the wool over our eyes.  They haven't got a clue.  Even when they poll us they don't ask the right questions.  And no poll can reflect the depth of opinion that exists on any single topic.  I am very wary of a talking head or a politician trying to support his or her own viewpoint (be it conservative or liberal or libertarian or whatever) by telling me on the TV that he or she knows what the American people want.

They don't.  They can't.  They should simply be responsible to their own communities, their own constituents (and NOT to the lobbyists), and quit with the all-encompassing "I'll tell you what you feel and think" nonsense.  They should say, out loud, "MY constituents by a whatever % margin feel like this:..."

They don't speak for me.  Don't let them speak for you or tell you what you think, either.