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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] The Constitution
  • Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 06:36:16 -0700


> In a democracy such as existed in many of the Greek
>city states (at least for a time and at least for free males), any question
>could be put to a popular vote, the people could be appealed to at any
>time. In a constitutional republic (as we are supposed to have)
>appealing every decision to the popular vote is seen as mob rule . . .

I feel that I failed to address this adequately, or, more accurately, express my agreement.

Consider the populations of the various republics or democracies prior to our Constitutional Convention of 1787. Consider the population of the USA at that time. The framers were appropriately afraid of a democracy, whereing a few thousand people could drastically upset a country of laws. Now contrast that with today. We are a country of approximately 300 million population. We have rules governing how elections may be inititated and how they will be conducted. For the "mass mob" effect to prevail today would require an overwhelming amount of organization, money and effort.

But. BUT! Our DC Whorehouse is a democracy. It is ruled by majority vote. And today it has very nearly become one-party rule. Yes, formal rules--which can be changed--help to keep things stable, but as the recent "nuclear option" issue illustrated, the party that controls the Senate and the House could, if it chose, control the vote on any issue and could, if it chose, change the rules. That is a far greater fear for me than for the masses to rise up and prevail, as could happen in a pure democracy.

Consider further that if the presidency continues to be held by the same party, the Congress continues to have the same power structure, and the president has the opportunity to place two dependably pro-Republican justices on the Supreme Court, that the country will be run by one party. The president will be very close to being a king.






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