[dangerbird2]

If you are a voting constituent of Senator Feinstein, you'd better believe she's going to listen to you,lest she put her or her sucessor's political career in Jeopardy. No good politician today is going to make Eric Cantor's mistake of ignoring activists in their own party, only to find themselves out of a job by the general election.

Just don't expect elected officials to pay attention to you if you aren't a part of their voting district.

[vkou]

I have no idea why you're being downvoted. Everything you say is true - politicians fear the primaries, they fear domestic outrage over their policies, and they don't care one whit for someone calling from the other side of the country to complain about them.