Re:U.S. Drops California Case Against Apple After Accessing ...
by u801e on Monday March 28, 2016 @09:19PM
(#11378884)
> First, what polls say is not the same as what the electorate believes. Actual voters skew older and more conservative that the general public.
It seems to me that minority interests have a disproportional influence on policy decisions and that a single issue may not have a high enough priority to get elected representatives to change policy on that issue.
For example, if you look at the the NMSL (National Maximum Speed Limit) that was in effect from 1974 through 1995, it was quite obvious, based on traffic speed measurements, that almost no one was complying with the law on interstate highways, yet it took 13 years before it was modified to allow for 65 mph speed limits and another 8 years before it was repealed entirely.
So, it's entirely possible that the electorate was not in favor of that particular law long before 1995, but that single issue wasn't important enough for congress to vote on for around a decade.
It seems to me that minority interests have a disproportional influence on policy decisions and that a single issue may not have a high enough priority to get elected representatives to change policy on that issue.
For example, if you look at the the NMSL (National Maximum Speed Limit) that was in effect from 1974 through 1995, it was quite obvious, based on traffic speed measurements, that almost no one was complying with the law on interstate highways, yet it took 13 years before it was modified to allow for 65 mph speed limits and another 8 years before it was repealed entirely.
So, it's entirely possible that the electorate was not in favor of that particular law long before 1995, but that single issue wasn't important enough for congress to vote on for around a decade.