Tennessee Democrat Senate candidate Phil Bredesen knows what’s best for you.

The former governor told a newspaper today that politicians in Washington, D.C. think too much about what the voters want.

So much for that dusty ole’ “Of the people, by the people, for the people” mantra.

While talking about economic powers in the world and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, he told editors at The Tennessean, “…I just think free trade is good. But much more fundamentally, I think it was a bad, sort of national security decision, simply because if you’re going to be in this kind of an economic competition with China, who is certainly a formidable competitor, we are dominant at this point, in that part of the world.”

He continued, “I have no idea why we would cede that economic dominance to China for some, you know, local political kind of thing.

“One of the problems I’ve got with Washington today that I’d really like to be one that helps to address, is everything is so transactional, you know, what do the voters think today,” he said.

“And there’s not enough people just thinking out about the long term impacts of some of these kinds of decisions.”

He rejected the notion that elected officials should listen to the opinions of their constituents, who will ultimately live by the rules being handed down by Bredesen and his would-be colleagues.