Politicians have a choice to act morally and with individual conscience; however, it is rare. Caught as they are in-between the gnashing teeth of party discipline, media discipline, populism, and maybe pathological desires for power. Fareed Zakaria blamed too much democracy for that in his book Future of Freedom. Politicians could not act morally or as executive/legislative specialists as they were hemmed in by the demand to be re-elected. Ezra Klein points a finger at the mass media. (more)