The Tyranny of the Majority

 The Tyranny of the Majority

The View from the Middle

 

Given the recent election results and the plans being announced by the Democrat majority party, we should all pause and reflect on the very underpinnings of our Republic.  The fundamental principle that our nation was founded on was “Freedom”.  Our Founders wanted the freedom to strive for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” without being crushed by an oppressive, overpowering government.  They really wanted to avoid a king, but there were other dangers they feared.  Thomas Jefferson understood that “an elective despotism” can be just as bad or worse than a king, and James Madison feared “an unjust majority” who would impose their will on the rest of the country.

Because of this desire for liberty for “all”, the Constitutional Convention in 1787 was a lesson in compromise.  The concept of a bicameral Congress was a protection for smaller states, which ironically included New York at the time, so that they wouldn’t be dominated by the bigger states who could then force their will upon them.  They created a balance of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branches of our government to ensure that no single branch could dominate the others thus subjugate “the people”.

But today, almost 250 years after that Convention, we find ourselves in a position where we have to defend ourselves from “elected despotism” or an “unjust majority” that by all evidence wants to impose their will on the entire country even though their majority is razor thin.  

Let’s look at the facts surrounding this majority party.  First, the Democrats will say that Joe Biden received 80 million votes for President (of course some will say he did not), but what they refuse to admit is the Donald Trump received nearly 75 million votes.  Should they tell those 75 million Americans they will not be heard or even considered?  That certainly was not the intent of our Founders.  In the House, Nancy Pelosi and crew lost over a dozen seats to give her one of the smallest majorities in the House since the two-party system emerged back in 1857.  And of course, the 50-50 split in the Senate could not be closer and has only been this close one other time in our country’s history.  Is this a time for the majority party to force its will on the entire country?  Of course not.

If these results are a mandate for anything, they are a mandate for compromise.  Yet what are the things that the Democrat leadership is talking about.  First, they want to pack the Supreme Court by changing the number of Justices from nine to thirteen.  This would allow Joe Biden to pick four Justices of his preference simultaneously thus shifting the ideological balance in the court from conservative to liberal overnight.  This “court packing” was tried by FDR and rejected and denounced by the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  It would also most likely be spurned by all of the current Justices on the Supreme Court.

They also have plans to “pack the Senate”.  How, you ask, can they do that?  First, they plan to make Washington DC a state, thus giving them two new Senators which they believe will be reliably Democrat since DC is 95% Democrat.  They would look for other ways to tip the scales in their favor like making Guam a state or carving California into multiple states so that it also could deliver more reliable Democrat Senators to Congress.  This is gerrymandering on a national scale and is an attempt to turn the Senate into another House of Representatives which violates the very principles on which our country was founded.

And as if these two moves aren’t bad enough, Nancy Pelosi has already suspended the Motion to Recommit from the House rules and Chuck Schumer is talking about eliminating the Filibuster rule in the Senate.  Both of these rules are intended to provide some leverage to the minority party and have been in practice for over 100 years in each case.  These are purely partisan moves being taken at a time when the country and our government are nearly evenly split, 50-50. 

One of Joe Biden’s campaign promises was that he was going to unite our country, which I actually believe is necessary.  However, all of these political moves are as divisive as they could possibly be.  These actions will not only NOT unite America, but it will rip it apart.  

But this last election HAS delivered a mandate to our government leaders.  The representation in the House and the Senate could not be any more evenly divided and 75 million Americans voted for the conservative candidate for President.  This is not a time to turn a blind eye to half of this country and pass extreme policies through a series of 51 to 50 votes.  It is a time for working together.  It is a time for compromise.  It is a time for wisdom.

Remember also that nothing lasts forever.  12 years ago, Barack Obama had a 60-40 advantage in the Senate and a 257-178 advantage in the House (59% to 41%) but he didn’t try to implement any of these radical partisan measures.  Just eight years later, Donald Trump controlled both Houses of Congress and the White House.  I have confidence that the people of The United States will not easily surrender their freedom.  Liberty is in our DNA and “We the People” will forever rise up to claim it.