Possibly the two most important themes to come out of the newly formed Constitution was that the authority of a legitimate government comes only from the consent of free people and secondly, recalling the cliché “If men were angels, no government would be necessary,” there was the concept of checks and balances and a separation of power to prevent the accumulation of power in the hands of too few.
But let’s drill down on the form of government given to us by the framers who studied many other civilizations, ancient and modern, to learn what worked and what didn’t. Ancient Rome gave them the idea of a representative form of government with a division of authority, which led to our having a Senate and a House of Representatives. The English Bill of Rights and the Magna Carta gave birth to our Bill of Rights, which protects our individual rights and liberties. But how we became a republic with a representational form of government as opposed to a democracy where each individual had a vote was fiercely debated and brought to the people in the Federalist Papers. James Madison in Federalist No. 10 warned against factions; groups of people who band together to protect and promote their special economic interests and political opinions. In a democracy, if more than one half of the people can be persuaded they want something, they rule. The cure for the inevitable factions and mob rule was to create a government in which the many elect the few who govern by representation.
Direct democracies where citizens participate directly in making the laws end up with dominance by the strongest factions. No beneficial change would come about for smaller groups because their numbers are too few. Direct democracies are impractical on a larger scale especially for a country as big as America. Voting on every single law, bill or policy change would cripple and slow down the process and be very expensive.
This is not to say we wouldn’t enjoy better, more honest representation. The pharmaceutical industry spends something like $422,000 per lawmaker and by the perks and favorable legislation for that industry and, sadly, the number of prescription drug addicts and overdose deaths, I’d say they get pretty good representation. But we’re supposed to be a nation of laws, not of men. When some in government or their cronies are above the law or get special treatment, well, then, we’ve lost our republic.
Years and years of poor representation is exactly what’s given rise to outside candidates promising to be different. But all the noise about the rigged system is sheer ignorance of our republican system. It ignores the 10th Amendment (states’ rights), where each state establishes their own rules for primary elections. Similarly, the electoral college will determine who wins the presidency, not the popular vote. If that were the case big states with more population would always choose our president with smaller states like Hawaii having no say in that determination.
As citizens of a free republic, it is our duty to preserve it. If you would like to take a free online course on the U.S. Constitution go to: www.freeconstitutioncourse.com.
Miki Kerr writes a monthly column for West Hawaii Today