Ben Kleinerman’s excellent, conclusive essay on the approaching events of January 6 leaves little more to be said, but it provoked this thought: The least persuasive justification for objecting to electoral ballots is that some number of Americans believe the election that produced them was fraudulent. Never mind that the arsonists are trying to grab the fire chief’s badge. The real problem with these self-described Madisonians is their view of representation. To say they are merely “representing” their constituents by repeating their beliefs, a slick move by which members of Congress need not actually associate themselves with the fictions they are parroting, entirely abrogates the representative’s essential responsibility to, as Federalist 10 put it, “refine and enlarge the public views.” The existence of a view does not justify its official articulation in a solemn process of constitutional government. If members of Congress were pass-through vehicles for relaying public views regardless of their merit, we could automate their function or choose them by sortition. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and their band of followers are Athenians, not Madisonians.