For some years now, editorialists have been lamenting that elected officials who know better defer to the irrational beliefs of their constituents instead of saying and doing what they know to be right and educating the voters. Whether they know it or not, the pundits are channeling the ideas of conservative thinker Edmund Burke about the scope of a representative's rights and duties. Unfortunately, Burke's idea of a representative's role has little or no place in modern American democracy.