Commentary - winning

Tonight the Maplewood City Council will likely take an action that I think is wrong. It will be so wrong that I will view it as a betrayal of any sense of justice there may be in the world. Those members of the council for whom I and many others did volunteer campaign work (all of them) know how I feel about this action. Shouldn't they just do what we want? After all, because of us, they (we) won! If they won't do what we want, then maybe we should just quit - just stop paying attention, or stop being supportive, or threaten not to be helpful the next time around.

And it's not just a local phenomenon. Thousands of posts have appeared on the national blog-scene attacking the Obama administration for not doing what the base wants, and making just that argument to quit.

But that is selfish thinking, not principled thinking.

Elected officials in a representative democracy must govern. They must use their collective judgment to do what they determine to be best for every person affected by their decisions, not just their supporters. We work to elect those candidates that we think will do the better job of making those decisions for us as if we were personally charged with representing everyone, not just our narrow point of view.

So, when the council makes the terrible decision they are likely to make tonight, it will be the right decision, since they are doing what they think is best for the city - all of the residents, businesses, and neighbors - not what is best for me.

To think otherwise is to become what we have worked so hard to reject.

Stephan