Posted on 10/02/2013 10:25:41 AM PDT by mojito
This time is different. What is at stake in this government shutdown forced by a radical Tea Party minority is nothing less than the principle upon which our democracy is based: majority rule. President Obama must not give in to this hostage taking — not just because Obamacare is at stake, but because the future of how we govern ourselves is at stake.
What we’re seeing here is how three structural changes that have been building in American politics have now, together, reached a tipping point — creating a world in which a small minority in Congress can not only hold up their own party but the whole government. And this is the really scary part: The lawmakers doing this can do so with high confidence that they personally will not be politically punished, and may, in fact, be rewarded. When extremists feel that insulated from playing by the traditional rules of our system, if we do not defend those rules — namely majority rule and the fact that if you don’t like a policy passed by Congress, signed by the president and affirmed by the Supreme Court then you have to go out and win an election to overturn it; you can’t just put a fiscal gun to the country’s head — then our democracy is imperiled.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Just for starters, how about this Tommy?
It was your side that passed 0bunga Care without a single Republican vote in either house of Congress.
And now that Republicans are now a majority in the House, many of them elected on a promise to kill 0bunga Care, you're shocked...shocked that they would use their majority in this terrible way, to thwart the great 0bunga.
For Bubble Boy Tommy, it seems that the will of the majority is a one way street. Democrat majorities are wise and good. Republican majorities are a threat to democracy. I'm not sure how that works, since the House of Representatives was designed to be the body of our government most reflective of the will of the people, and lo, those people - if polls can be believed - don't want 0bunga Care.
But if Tommy Bubble Boy says so, it must be true. And a great fear stalks the hearts of lying, dishonest liberals everywhere.
Zer0 and you both miss the whole point.
We are not a democracy. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to eat for dinner.
We are a representative republic. At least we used to be before we abandoned the rule of law because we elected a homosexual, half-black crypto-Moslem for President.
I refuse to live under Communism, even if a majority of the rabble vote for it.
The American Soviet Media tells me that “The People” support the American Soviet Party (formerly known as the Democrat Party). If the ASP really did have the upper hand, then why do they sound so bloody desperate?
The closer to Oct 14, the more impossible Obama’s position.
then it will be CR PLUS DEBT Ceiling.
Then all he has left is personal blackmail.
Obama clears the field and does not negotiate.
That was my first reaction as well. But democrats mischaracterize our government deliberately unless they are clearly in the minority; then its the rule of law.
“[T]hen our democracy is imperiled.”
Well good thing we are a Republic then... dumb ass NYT “reporter”.
Uh no...the Founders established the system of checks and balances and also gave the House of Representatives the "power of the purse" to prevent just such a tyranny of the majority.
Friedman is an ignorant fool.
He supports majority rule? Really? Bwaaahaaaahaaahaaahaaa! *taking a breath* Bwaaahaaahaaaahaaa!
If we can put an end to “Democracy” in this country, I am all for it.
This is supposed to be a Republic, built on laws, not mob rule, and it is high time we returned to this vision.
Our “democracy” ...? Again, with the “our democracy” crap?
We live in a representative republic, NOT a democracy. Our founders were very much opposed to setting up a “democracy” — indeed the designed the federal government specifically (in a number of important ways) to prevent it ever degenerating (a term wholly consistent with their view) into a “democracy.”
But... whatever.... ANY illusion we lived in a representative republic OR a democracy was destroyed by Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Obama cramming Obamacare down America’s throat... against all the polls (where’s your precious “democracy” in that, NYT?) .... AND as Nancy said so eloquently.... when denying the Congress and the American people the right to even see the Obamacare legislation....... “you’ll have to enact it into law to find out what’s in it!”
That, NYT, is not “democracy,” That is not “representative republic” either. That is simply Dictatorship. Plain and simple.
Welcome to the new world (Islamo-) Nazi state, NYT.
LOL...sounds like Widdle Tommy Friedman is wetting his pants at the prospect that the real Americans are fed up with him and the Left “transforming” the USA into the old Soviet Union. Good. There is nothing so wholesome for the nation as the Left screaming in pain. We can only hope that the final phase in the destruction of the Left is seeing their heads explode when Ted Cruz becomes President.
Majority rule????? You mean like the majority of Americans who utterly despise obabacare and have hated it since its first inception? Like the clear majority of Americans who STILL hate it and want it killed?
One has come to expect hypocrisy from the Times, but this is so two-faced it can sing harmony with itself.
Slightly more than 1/5th of the US Population voted a Kenyan usurper into power, and a good many of those rue the day. Majority rule my a$$!
“Our democracy is at stake”
And the quicker this concept of “democracy” crashes and burns, the better. Only the mob aspect remains, and they threaten all civil discourse and common respect. The “I won” mindset is not about to consider any kind of conversation, or compromise, or even grant an audience to any dissenting point of view. The US Senate, once considered to be the repository of reasoned logic and reflective temperate exchange of views, has become a caucus dedicated to gridlock. Too many there simply talk past each other, and sometimes they are on the same side.
In the liberal world, Tea Party conservatives are the radical extremists. If the founding fathers came back today, they would be labeled extremists. If you defend the constitution and want a limited government, you are now extreme. I would just keep saying that to the media. Force the liberals to argue on that point.
Tee hee - my first thought as well - they are too stupid to know we are a republic. Even if we were a democracy - it wouldn’t mean anything to do them because the majority of Americans do NOT want obamacare. Idiots! I wish the Demoncrats would dry up and go away.
The Original Boston Tea Party had the slogan: “NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION !”
Back then in the 1700’s the Colonists did not like Tyranny, and eventually went to War to rid themselves of it.
Today, low-information people, and their “Mainstream” Media’s attitude is: “Tyranny? Is that like “bad” or something?”
High-information people realize that we have had Tyranny imposed on us by our own NINE SUPREMES when they told us that ANY Administration can force us to buy anything they want us to buy as long as it is called a MANDATORY TAX.
The Obama Administration then decreed that the IRS would gather our personal medical information, administer and collect this MANDATORY TAX from us, and or punish us as they saw fit: WITHOUT CONGRESSIONAL REVIEW.
A simple annual, or quarterly increase in the Insurance Premium is all that is needed to increase taxation by the Obama Administration that is not subject to the Constitutional “Advice and Consent” of the United States Congress.
To this point in time, the Obama Administration has been successful in depriving us of Representation in Congress while imposing a mandatory insurance tax on us.
The Obama Administration may call it “Forced Marketing,” but I call it TRYANY !
MANDATORY PURCHASE OF OBAMACARE MEDICAL INSURANCE IS “TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION !”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.