Posted on 03/23/2015 10:43:49 AM PDT by jazusamo
The Economist magazine recently published "What's gone wrong with Democracy ... and what can be done to revive it?" The suggestion is that democracy is some kind of ideal for organizing human conduct. That's a popular misconception.
The ideal way to organize human conduct is to create a system that maximizes personal liberty for all. Liberty and democracy are not synonymous and most often are opposites. In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison explained, "Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority." Democracy and majority rule confer an aura of legitimacy and respectability on acts that would otherwise be deemed tyrannical.
Let's look at majority rule, as a decision-making tool, and ask ourselves how many of our life choices we would like settled by majority rule. Would you want the kind of car you own to be decided through a democratic process, or would you prefer purchasing any car you please? Ask that same question about decisions such as where you shall live, what clothes you purchase, what food you eat, what entertainment you enjoy and what wines you drink. I'm sure that if anyone suggested that these choices be subject to a democratic process, we would deem it tyranny.
Our Founders saw democracy as a variant of tyranny. At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Edmund Randolph said, "...that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy." John Adams said, "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."...
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
I know. It’s hard to resist replying to knee-jerks though.
America is *supposed* to be a Republic. But in practice is it? I don’t think so.
Apparently and apparently there are a lot of people here who chose to flap their gums without reading the article.
bkmk
Juan too many Williams. :-)
Sounds like you’re paraphrasing Stalin. “One takes from you it is theft, a million and it is a statistic.”
I like Professor Walter E. Williams a lot, but he left out a critical factor. The United States was supposed to be a constitutional republic. When we stopped limiting FedGov to the constitutionally enumerated powers, we lost a huge limit on FedGov meddling in our lives. It’s not just the anti-majority rules that were supposed to restrain government, the constitutional limits were also supposed to do so.
The last vestige of such limitations died with Wickard v. Filburn, when the Supreme Court decided that growing wheat for your own personal consumption could be regulated as interstate commerce because growing your own grain would reduce your personal demand for interstate grain. That was an insane decision, and that, followed by the decision that Obamacare was constitutional because it’s a tax drove the final nails into the coffin of limited government. Now the only question is how long we have before FedGov controls our entire economy and every aspect of our lives.
From Wickard v. Filburn: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/317/111 “The wheat marketing quota and attendant penalty provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended by the Act of May 26, 1941, when applied to wheat not intended in any part for commerce but wholly for consumption on the farm, are within the commerce power of Congress.”
"Our last names all look alike."
You'll find the answer in his article.......reading stuff is your best friend.
LOL
Yep. Most 18 - 25’s I’ve seen are simply too ignorant of the facts and how the system works to allow into a voting booth. They don’t have any skin in the game either. They also have’t been lied to or deceived enough to have discernmentt at that point.
“Does he even know this Nation is a republic, not a democracy?”
Apparently you did not even glance at the article but posted based on your interpretation of the title which you took literally. Walter Williams knows very well that this country is SUPPOSED to be a Republic but in fact operates more like a democracy which is a detestable form of government.
“The United States is NOT A DEMOCRACY. The United States is a Constitutional Republic.”
It is SUPPOSED to be a Republic, it was FOUNDED as a Republic, it NOW operates IN FACT as an OLIGARCHY which is much closer to a DEMOCRACY than to a Republic. There can be no REAL constitutional Republic when the very same supreme court which is supposed to preserve the constitution participates in nullifying the constitution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdS6fyUIklI
Strictly speaking, yes. I tend to relate it more to the common use, the right to choose and replace your own leaders.
Bttt
That’s Ted Williams—”hits every time”
I'm like this at times.
I see the TITLE of the thread in the sidebar, and that sets me off before I even get a chance to pull it up on the monitor!
I've a response or two ready to go before the last word appears.
Thanks for giving me this teaching moment; as I need to SLOW down and get the context before I start running my mouth uh, fingers.
"If you can keep it..."
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