A couple weeks ago, we discussed the different styles of legislators – “delegates” that try to represent constituents and “trustees” that use their own judgment.

Because the short 80-day session moves faster than communications, legislators end up voting without knowing or consulting their constituents. This enables legislators to vote their own opinions regardless of what their constituents may think.

The gap between legislators and constituents becomes apparent when we look at the use of the initiative and referendum. While this provides only a few examples, it does prove a gap exists. The best example is medical marijuana, an issue that was constantly stonewalled in the legislature but passed by a vote of the people.

Need Time to Consult

If the legislature would use the 80-day session the way it was intended, it would spend the 80 days through the biennium, meeting several days to hold hearings and several days in session. That would provide time lags between meetings, giving citizens and legislators more time to consult with each other.

Contributing to the gap between the legislature and the public is the differing composition of each. When it comes to public issues, legislators are a cut above constituents. Legislators are active in public affairs back in their districts. That is why they get elected.

The public consists of the whole society in which around 40% are nonparticipants. For a variety of reasons, this 40% is preoccupied with their own lives. In many cases, their horizons are very limited. A significant number of them are dependent on the rest of us.

Helping the Unfortunate

But, in our society, they are made in the image of God so we honor “sanctity of life” by bringing them along at our expense. Not without a lot of grumbling, however.

Because legislators come from the “upper” class, they have an “upper class” perspective of life. They are more assertive than the 40% who are outside of the loop and they criticize the 40% for not pulling themselves up by their bootstraps.

It is indisputable that the Republican Party consists of a large proportion of the self-reliant group while the Democrats include many of the 40%. Because of this distribution, Republican policies help the successful upper class while Democrats represent a more lower income diverse constituency.

Republicans know that a small, limited government best serves their interests and they know that, having the money, they are going to pay more taxes because they are more successful financially.

Democrats favor a more active spending government because it benefits their constituents, especially those of the 40%. And they also know that the upper classes will pay more to finance the bigger government.

The Moral Dilemma

That brings us to the question of public morality. To what degree should the wealthy that benefit from the national economy share their prosperity with those who can’t carry their share?

Our answer includes a foggy commitment to each other as a matter of Christian love and obedience. This commitment has diminished as prosperity has increased, according to Gallup polling.

An overarching idea is that of community. Each geographic entity is the unit of community. Towns and cities are – or should be – communities in which people care for others as well as themselves.

When it comes to states, North Dakota needs to be a community in which everyone in the state wants everyone else in the state to be cared for. North Dakota lacks community because it consists mainly of frontier individualists.

The present legislature has done more to destroy community than any previous session.

To have a greater sense of community, the legislature and the people need to close the gap of expectations in public policy. The legislature has done poorly at community building because it has not been very interactive with the people, this session worse than most.

Lloyd Omdahl is a former lieutenant governor of North Dakota and former political science professor at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.