It’s both. Politicians are indifferent to the populace, but then they can afford to be, because of how many people will support being tough on crime even when it means things like this, vote for judges who promise to execute more people even when it is known some are innocent, oppose government services for poor people and unions, agree with indiscriminant spying and even oversight-free drone strikes, and so on.
But we talked about this before, and I don’t think you were willing to acknowledge any such division in what the populace has been asking for exists, or provide any serious evidence that united voting does nothing comparable to the burden of proof you demanded from me, so I am not eager to repeat the argument with you.
Instead I’m going to put this up again, because I think it’s funny:
