I'm really sick of reading articles like these -- reading opinion researchers and political scientists applauding the cleverness or canny smarts of politicians who do what the people who voted for them want them to do.
Take this example:
Well, duh --- if politicians pay attention to our needs, we'll pay attention to them. Otherwise, why bother?
Or this more subtle example from John Sides: the political scientist lists a long list of issues on which the Prez is working for what the people who elected him want -- gay rights, gun control, withdrawal from Afghanistan, women's equality. Then he wonders:
The President is just doing what the majority who elected him wants him to do. What needs pondering about that?
What requires all this study is why elected officials so often ignore what their constituents expect of them. That's worth digging into: are we seeing corruption, individual ambition, stupidity, or are they scared to spell out the push and pull of governing to their constituents? If the last, why not?
Doing what politicians were elected to do should be the norm in a functioning democracy, not some novelty to be studied.