elected representatives aren't perfectly rational robots that take in each of their constituents' inputs into a fancy weighted matrix and produce a vote accordi

elected representatives aren't perfectly rational robots that take in each of their constituents' inputs into a fancy weighted matrix and produce a vote accordingly and without concern for anything else. in fact, a big issue is that upon assuming office one's priorities can (and often do) immediately shift so far as to essentially ignore whatever was promised while campaigning - there aren't exactly contracts or anything. it's not uncommon to just blatantly lie about what you'll (not) do then do it, especially if maintaining/increasing power level is on your list. a better analogy would be something like: your options are ordering one of a few dubious multi-year long supplies of food [politicians] from a couple of entrenched vendors [parties], without any real assurances of what's under the covers [promises, etc.], and with a hefty dose of marketing and falsehoods surrounding all of them [us vs. them, tribal stuff]. or trying to do it all yourself [run for office yourself], which is a huge undertaking and draws ire/counter efforts from all the established players.