Who is your constituent?

In a recent nationally-distributed fundraising letter, Katherine Harris, the Republican apparatchik who used her position in the government of Florida to influence the 2000 election in favor of her boss's brother, has unwittingly revealed the basic nature of today's Congress. In between sycophantic solicitations for payment, she promises that "When elected to the United States Senate, I will represent ALL conservatives." (emphasis in original.)

Now forgive me for being naive. But I was under the impression that it was the duty of Senators and Representatives to represent the residents of their designated districts. You know, the people who actually vote in the elections. Even the undecided moderates and those who are not card-carrying, blood-oath-swearing members of one's own political party. Not so, according to Harris and many other politicos. Their duty as they see it is to serve the interests of the national or extra-national interests who pay them.

In other words, Katherine Harris is more interested in supporting the interests of someone on the other side of the country who wishes to buy her vote, or to promote some kind of perceived national conservative agenda, than in the interests of mere insignificant voters in Jacksonville or Miami or Apalachicola.

The day when we actually and openly have Congresscritters openly representing partisan organizations, corporations and churches, rather than voters who inhabit actual geographic districts, may be upon us sooner than we think. But, as long as we actually go through the motions of conducting elections, the good folks in Florida still have the final say, and they may balk at the prospect of being "represented" by someone who displays such fundamental unconcern for their local interests. The Lakeland, Florida Ledger notes, in an editorial entitled Katherine Harris Should Step Aside, that "Strong as Harris remains with Florida Republicans, she is extraordinarily weak with Democratic and independent voters."

Gee. I wonder why that might be.