The fundamental question
Super Tuesday and the recent decisions by the Supreme Court seem like a perfect backdrop to the ultimate question in a representative democracy. I can filibuster here, but the question is a fairly simple one to ask, but a very hard one to answer. Do we believe that we are better off with the people (all of the people) being able to have unfettered choices in who represents them? I would say it is pretty clear that the answer to that question has been a resounding no throughout our history.
In the beginning, only land owners could vote and even then they had to resort to the electoral college. African Americans and poor people didn’t get the vote for nearly a century. Women had to wait almost 50 years after that. Finally, younger people could work, pay taxes, and go to war, but they couldn’t vote until after the Vietnam War. Fast forward to the present time and the biggest battles of our times have been the methods used to keep certain people from voting.
The efforts in Colorado, Maine, and Illinois represented the other guard rail that we could place on our democracy. If you don’t want to restrict who can vote then you can restrict who they can vote for. The last nine years has been a circle jerk where each party or group has waited for the other to do the dirty work for them. The Republican party hoped that he would lose at the ballot box and go away. They also said it was the responsibility of the Justice department. The Justice department clearly slow rolled their prosecutions and hoped he would just go away. The cabinet could have used the 25th amendment. Congress could have voted to convict once if not twice. Mitch McConnell himself said it was a job for the courts. Now, the courts are saying it is a job for Congress.
I’m not sure whose failure is the most egregious. Each institution taken by itself could explain its actions. I found the use of the 14th amendment to be problematic at best. At some point some recognized court or institution has to come to an official stance that he participated in insurrection. The January 6th committee danced around it. Jack Smith has been dancing around it. We have been calling it out on cable television and the blogosphere, but there has been nothing definitive or official.
That lands us right back at the opening question. Do we absolutely trust the people to make this call? If the answer is no then it is time to do some hard soul searching. I’d argue that if we were really about letting the people choose their leaders in an unfettered way then he has been told no twice already. That’s a tiny consolation. If we still think it is way too dangerous to allow ordinary people to have the unchecked ability to choose their leaders then we have to seriously reevaluate who we are. I personally think a number of Americans are too stupid to vote and understand the gravity of it. They are easily led and vote against their interests too easily. I also have to acknowledge that the same exact arguments were used against women, African American, and young people voting. Do we bring back literacy tests? Do we bar people with red hats or stupid bumper stickers? Obviously, I speak in jest but if you decide that some people are incapable of doing it properly then you are fundamentally responsible for finding a way to cull the voter rolls in a fair and equitable way. Otherwise, we have to let it ride and fight like hell.
Here in wacko Idaho the rethugs in the legislature always have bills to limit who can vote and how. No student (college) I D card for one of the photo ID possibilities. There are bills to limit absentee voting. It goes on and on.
1Now they are trying to limit initiative, which is in our state constitution. It was successful in expanding Medicaid and is currently being promoted (signatures gathered) to change to open primaries and rank choice voting. Of course they want to prohibit that.
“Democracy is the worst from of government, except for all the others.” Winston Churchill
2It is amazing to me that so many people are not interested in their government, how it runs, and they are personally affected by or when elections are held. As a Voter Registrar who has helped high school seniors register to vote, I cannot tell you how often I have been told “my parents do not vote because they say it doesn’t have anything to do with them.” It is absolutely baffling. Texas has been non-voting state for years, with only about 30% or so of edible voters turning out.
3Linda, I spent 30 years in Idaho till ‘87, back when it wasn’t whacko. I get sick to see how it’s changed the last decade.
As for voting, based on the attached article, I hope what trumpf and family are trying to do to force non-cultists out of his party will backfire on him. He could force a significant % of repugnantican voters to either not vote or even vote against him.
4https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3/5/2227639/-Trump-s-big-purge-of-the-GOP-is-underway
The doorbell rings.
On the front porch is a flaming bag of dog poop. The courts know it so won’t stomp on it. Congress knows it so won’t stomp on it. Even my sister the Fox News watching Republican voter knows it, but won’t step on it with her LL Bean garden boots. She’d rather let her house burn down, because she’s busy discussing with her gated community neighbors if another paper bag someone found that’s not on fire might have slightly older poop in it. Or even worse, programs that might help people who are less fortunate than they are.
5Very apt analogy Rick. Whoever finally takes the fastball to the groin and tries to put it out will get dog excrement all over them. We were discussing this the other night. When the business of politics is to keep getting reelected suddenly stuff like the general will and common good go out the window.
The only difference is in the degree in which it is done. How did Diane Feinstein suddenly become a millionaire? If politics is a means to a payday and not something we use to make people’s live better then why would I take the chance in putting that bag out?
6I differ in only one respect from what you say. It is not that some people are too stupid to vote clearly, it is that far too many people are too ignorant to vote clearly. And I’m afraid that more ordinary education will help that ignorance. It is WILLFUL ignorance, or to borrow a term from the Catholic Church, Invincible Ignorance. And I don’t have an answer.
7There is no fair and equitable way to cull the voter rolls. There may be in theory, but I guarantee no matter how good the theory is it would get twisted in practice. I have only anecdotal evidence throughout American history for this, but I think it’s pretty strong anecdotal evidence.
8Precisely my point Vic. I could ruffle through the old file cabinet and yank out one of my old Government tests I used to give the kids and say that it was the literacy test. It would easily be perverted and it would become Jim Crow all over again.
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