Keller @ Large: When Power Is 'Hyper-Responsive' To The People

BOSTON (CBS) - In an interesting column by Nestor Ramos of the Boston Globe critical of a local zoning board in Cambridge, there was this provocative passage: "Municipal boards play important roles…. But too often they are hyper-responsive to the loudly stated wishes of the relative handful of people who show up to their meetings to complain."

Let's discuss the notion of our government being "hyper-responsive" to the reaction of their constituents.

We definitely don't want a system that reacts only to the loudest voices. Many citizens do not speak out about their wishes; others see their voices going unheard.

Yet if we care about a fair society, their interests should be just as important to the decision-makers as those of the lobbyists and loudmouths.

That's why we have a representative form of government, where we elect people who claim to have principles, empower them to listen and then make up their own minds.

And in the case of the Senate version of Trumpcare, apparently dead after Monday night's defections of conservative Republican Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Jerry Moran of Kansas, we are seeing the system at work.

Lee held to long-stated principles the bill didn't meet.

Moran held multiple town halls where his constituents begged him to kill it.

Both men saw the polls showing deep public contempt for Trumpcare.

So they're out, and so, it seems, is Trumpcare.

That's what can happen when power is "hyper-responsive" to the people.