Constituent Pressure Quotes

In government offices which are sensitive to the vehemence and passion of mass sentiment public men have no sure tenure. They are in effect perpetual office seekers, always on trial for their political lives, always required to court their restless constituents.

If I move one way, I lose a couple votes. If I move another way, I lose a couple votes.

It is very difficult to get legislation passed. But then the danger always is that you have no power at all if you do not exercise constant power.

Today's Congress responds to everything, to everybody, to every whim.

I began to get calls from constituents, 'Do you think you can ever get on transportation?' So when there was a vacancy created, I worked very hard to get there.

If I started worrying about how my constituents are going to react to every move I make, I wouldn't be able to do my job here. I'll do what I think is right and explain it later.

People vote against their own interests that all the time. But when you do the polling in the U.S., it has gone from less than 50 percent who thought climate change was real to 70-odd percent. And if you listen to the Republicans in Congress, they used to say, "Oh, climate change doesn't exist." Then they switched to "Well, it exists, but it's not man-made," to "Well, I'm going to address the issue." Why? Because when they go home, the local constituent says, "Wait a second. What are you talking about? We just had a flood. We haven't had rain in a long time." They can't get away from it.

It is a terrible thing to live in fear of their constituents to the extent which many members [of Congress] do. I would rather be defeated every day in the year than suffer such fear.