Last week marked the
conclusion of the grand taxpayer funded spectacles known as the national
party conventions. It is perhaps very telling that while $18 million in tax dollars
was granted to each party for these lavish ordeals, an additional
$50 million each was needed for security in anticipation of the
inevitable protests at each event. This amounts to a total of $136 million in
taxpayer funds for strictly partisan activities - a drop in the bucket
relative to our disastrous fiscal situation, but disgraceful nonetheless.
Parties should fund their own parties, not the taxpayer.
At these conventions, leaders
determined, or pretended to determine, who they wished to govern the nation
for the next four years amidst inevitable, endless exaltations of democracy.
Yet we are not a democracy. In fact, the founding fathers found the concept
of democracy very dangerous.
Democracy is majority rule at
the expense of the minority. Our system has certain democratic elements, but
the founders never mentioned democracy in the Constitution, the Bill of
Rights, or the Declaration of Independence. In fact, our most important
protections are decidedly undemocratic. For example, the First Amendment
protects free speech. It doesn't - or shouldn't - matter if that speech is
abhorrent to 51% or even 99% of the people. Speech is not subject to majority
approval. Under our republican form of government, the individual, the
smallest of minorities, is protected from the mob.
Sadly, the constitution and
its protections are respected less and less as we have quietly allowed our
constitutional republic to devolve into a militarist, corporatist social
democracy. Laws are broken, quietly changed and ignored when inconvenient to
those in power, while others in positions to check and balance do nothing. The
protections the founders put in place are more and more just an illusion.
This is why increasing
importance is placed on the beliefs and views of the president. The very
narrow limitations on government power are clearly laid out in Article 1
Section 8 of the Constitution. Nowhere is there any reference to being able
to force Americans to buy health insurance or face a tax/penalty, for
example. Yet this power has been claimed by the executive and astonishingly
affirmed by Congress and the Supreme Court. Because we are a constitutional
republic, the mere popularity of a policy should not matter. If it is in
clear violation of the limits of government and the people still want it, a
Constitutional amendment is the only appropriate way to proceed. However, rather
than going through this arduous process, the Constitution was in effect,
ignored and the insurance mandate was allowed anyway.
This demonstrates how there is
now a great deal of unhindered flexibility in the Oval Office to impose
personal views and preferences on the country, so long as 51% of the people
can be convinced to vote a certain way. The other 49% on the other hand have
much to be angry about and protest under this system.
We should not tolerate the
fact that we have become a nation ruled by men, their whims and the mood of
the day, and not laws. It cannot be emphasized enough that we are a republic,
not a democracy and, as such, we should insist that the framework of the
Constitution be respected and boundaries set by law are not crossed by our
leaders. These legal limitations on government assure that other men do not
impose their will over the individual, rather, the individual is able to
govern himself. When government is restrained, liberty thrives.
