Our legislators

For the past several years I have felt that the quality of our legislators has fallen remarkably. They are less interested in the country than in being reelected. A recent survey over the past two years by two political scientists, one from Yale, the other from George Washington, seems to agree with me.

They contacted 2,346 state legislators and provided them with access to highly detailed public opinion survey data — more detailed than almost all available opinion polls — about their constituents’ attitudes on gun control, infrastructure spending, abortion and many other policy issues. After all, the legislators should have an interest in what their constituents want. 

However, the study showed that an overwhelming majority of legislators were uninterested in learning about their constituents’ views. Furthermore, when the legislators who did view the data were surveyed afterward, they were no better at understanding what their constituents wanted than legislators who had not looked at the data.

"Our study suggests that for most politicians, voters’ views carry almost no weight at all."