Rights Of Individuals Need Protected Against Oppressive Majority
Posted
Gary Gerard-ggerard@timesuniononline.com
Well we’ve had us an interesting little run-up to the election this time around, haven’t we? I want to say right away that I would never presume to tell anybody how to vote. See, I was never a fan of endorsements by newspapers. To me, that always came across as a bit condescending. It’s like saying, “Yeah, well we here at the newspaper know better than you who’s most qualified, so we’ll just tell you how to vote.” When I came to the Times-Union, lo these 26 years ago, I was pleased to hear from then-publisher Mike Williams that the newspaper did not endorse candidates. His rationale for that policy was straight-forward, as was pretty much everything else he did. I recall him saying something like this: “No, we don’t endorse candidates. It’s a kiss of death. Why the hell would a candidate want a newspaper endorsement anyway? It’d probably make people vote the other way.” Ah, clarity. And, actually, a little sage wisdom, perhaps. So I – or this newspaper – won’t tell you how you should vote. I will tell you, however, that I have seen some troubling developments regarding elections locally and nationwide. These are things I have written about before, but I think a quick reminder is warranted. There seems to be this notion of a need for ideological purity among candidates and party faithful that I believe threatens the very underpinnings of the republic. See, we don’t live in a democracy. We live in a constitutional republic. There was a profoundly simple, completely logical and critically important reason for that. It was to protect the rights of individuals against the likelihood of an oppressive majority. We have a representative government – and a legal system – to protect the individual. In a democracy, the majority wins. How the majority votes is how the laws are made. I shudder to think what America would be like if we lived in a pure democracy. Just for fun, let’s consider a “what if” or two under that type of political system. What if we put a constitutional amendment banning all firearms put to a nationwide vote? You know what? There’s a chance that could pass. Bang, no more guns. (Pun fully intended.) How about a law to eliminate all welfare programs? That would have a chance of passing, I bet. How about overturning Roe V. Wade and making abortion illegal again? Probably would pass. What about gutting the Environmental Protection Agency and eliminating all those pesky regulations? Good chance that would make it through. I don’t have a crystal ball and I can’t say for sure whether any of that stuff really would pass, but just the idea that it could is chilling. Frankly, I’m fairly confident – given pure majority rule – that there would be some places in this country where women and blacks still would not be allowed to vote. Fortunately, our representative form of government guards against that sort of thing. But I see things happening in our political system that seem to be subverting the checks and balances the founders intended. I see this all-or-nothing, straight-ticket mentality sweeping across this land. Couple that with voter apathy and a U.S. Supreme Court that says corporations are people and money is speech and we have a bonafide threat to the protection of individual rights. Here’s how. In our primary system these days, voter turnout is abysmal. Kosciusko County had one of the highest rates in the state at 19 percent. Most counties’ turnout percentages fell into the single digits the last time around. Even in states where there are open primaries – where you don’t have to declare a party and can vote for candidates on either side of the ticket – voter turnout was historically low. When voter turnout is very low, the only people showing up are the most ardent, ideologically pure voters. This ensures parties can nominate the most ardent, ideologically pure primary candidates. Enter the Supreme Court and its recent rulings unleashing untoward amounts of cash into the political process. This allows the folks with the most money to bombard a weary electorate – which already holds politicians in contempt – with attack ads that only serve to alienate voters even more. The result? Fewer and fewer voters. The result of that? A higher percentage of those voting – even in general elections – are the most partisan, leading to the election of the most partisan candidates. This leads to a divided Congress that gets virtually nothing done. There is no compromise, no middle ground. This cultivates more contempt by voters and even lower voter turnout. It’s like a snowball rolling down a hill. The problem just keeps getting bigger. But here’s an even bigger problem. Let’s say, for example, that the Republicans capture control of the U.S. Senate and retain control of the House on Tuesday. For the next two years, President Obama’s veto pen serves as the only balance Let’s say in 2016, a Republican is voted in as president. Then, a couple liberals leave the Supreme Court bench. That puts Republicans in control of the House and Senate and gives conservatives a bulletproof majority in the Supreme Court? Cool, huh!? No checks. No balances. Just the most ideologically pure GOP running the whole show all the time. That comes as close to pure democracy as it gets. And that’s something I really don’t want to see happen. And I’m a conservative. Electoral pendulums swing back and forth, of course, so at some point, the Democrats would likely take full control. There have been other times in history when one party ran the whole show, to be sure. But that was back when compromise was not considered a weakness. Many of today’s lawmakers – and a growing number of them – are the most ideological pure members of their party. They have no reason or motivation to compromise because they fear being punished by a small minority of partisan voters in the next election. I hope I am wrong – I truly do – but I think the days of compromise may be gone forever. You can’t get elected if you even hint that you’re a moderate. It doesn’t have to be like this. We, the people, have the power to change it if only we use it. It’s time. Vote.
