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First of all, we do NOT mean the democracy of ancient Greece, wherein fully three quarters of the residents were slaves. Nor are we referring to the much vaunted democracy of Israel, "The only democracy in the Middle East." As one of our friends jokingly remarked, "Israel is a democracy, with full representation for something like half its citizens. And if the rest of its citizens would just realize that Hassidism is the only true path to enlightenment, they could vote too!" But wait, that won't work either, since Orthodox Judaism does not allow for conversion!
We also are not referring to the democracy of our Founding Fathers. Based upon a republican/representative form of democracy, it allowed voting only for landed white males. The real genius of the constitution which emerged from the American Revolution is that it allowed for amendment. Indeed, the first ten of those...referred to as the Bill of Rights...conferred unprecedented freedom on the favored few. However, later amendments extended these freedoms to all adults.
So, THIS is the democracy to which we refer and which we revere: the democracy of change; the ability of the majority of people to freely alter the terms of engagement as history progresses. A distressing number of our correspondents...especially self-proclaimed libertarians...show little regard for this aspect of our freedoms. Impatient with the "mistakes" of the majority and stuck in a sort of time warp that regards the "original intent" of the Founders as a holy grail of Universal Truth, they preach sermons of liberty and justice mostly to one another, blissfully unaware that it is those who DISAGREE with them that need convincing. For, any issue which does not command the positive attention of a vast majority of voters has little effect on the power relations that emerge from elections. Democratic politicians MUST...they have no choice...regard the will of the people as the final determinant of truth, justice and American way! Constantly referring to other "principles"...meaning statements of rules with which the referrer agrees...is a cop out. Why? Because it assumes that these other principles override the democratic principle itself, stated above.
We think that such persons...at root...lack any kind of principles at all! They have placed themselves firmly in the corner of the autocrats...the anti-democrats...those who believe that they...and they alone...hold the keys to Truth. In their minds, politics is reduced to a series of religious sermons to the unenlightened. Political activity is summarized as finding ever more clever arguments to convey Truth to the ignorant masses...the Mob. That they distrust "the people" is clear as a bell, no matter how they attempt to disguise their basic contempt.
We have often said that politics is about power, not principles. Those still stuck in the political wilderness of if-I-ruled-the-world mentality, simply can not grasp this elementary fact. They, you see, would be BENEVOLENT dictators, ensuring that we are all free to pursue lives of honor and dignity. Of course, the only freedoms they really understand and wish to protect are their own.
What they are ignoring is the power of the first amendment, the part about freedom-of-speech. Constantly fearful that purveyors of "false" doctrines...say Nazism or White Supremacy, for example...will be able to fool enough of us to re-establish these thoroughly discredited theories...they spend their time trying to restrict the freedom of the Bad Guys, rather than enlarging freedom for everyone. We, on the other hand, see freedom-of-speech as THE basic democratic freedom. As long as our opponents can not shut us up, we...the people...have a chance...a good chance...to alter history, to correct prior error (for example, the War on Drugs), to influence the only group that matters: the majority.
Currently, our democracy is still vigorous, still open to change. It seems to us that what problems that do exist are curable by...MORE democracy. Often overlooked when we speak of democracy are non-governmental forces. The ubiquity of public opinion polls in the political arena are often derided. Still, since elections...the ultimate curative...take place only infrequently in an ever changing world...these polls provide an invaluable look into the ever changing collective mind of the people. Politicians who ignore them end up being ex-politicians. And, of course there are also the movement activists, who march in the streets to bring issues important to them to our attention.
At the turn of the last century, progressive democrats introduced the notions of the initiative...the ability of the people to directly make law...and the recall...the ability of un-elect elected officials at any time. To date, only our western states have implemented these democratic reforms to any great extent. It is high time that they are extended to everyone.
The 50%-plus majority is not the only possible threshold for majority rule. We already require much higher bars for "serious" change...say constitutional amendments. Why not require "super-majorities"...we favor at least 75%...to pass ANY new legislation? This would put a serious crimp in the ability of our legislatures to pass pork-barrel or other frivolous laws. Higher taxes...to fund the other silly laws already on the books...would be MUCH harder to legislate.
Sunset clauses...the idea that a law will "expire" after a certain amount of time and must be renewed to stay in effect...would also serve to limit and...eventually...eliminate bad laws.
Finally, nobody...not the people nor their elected representatives...can be expected to run the country without accurate and timely information. So, serious efforts must be made to pry open the veil of secrecy that surrounds so much of political activity in the present world environment. The notion of "national security" is usually used to justify excessive secrecy. We think that the secrecy itself poses a much greater danger to our security than the vast majority of the information being suppressed. And, we are NOT talking about "tactical" secrecy...e.g. don't tell your enemies what you plan to do to them tomorrow. Instead, we are talking about all the secrecy that is invoked to protect "methods and means"...a catch-all category that includes almost anything the authors want it to include. If the methods we are using can not survive without secrecy, then we say, "Find new methods!"
In any case, we feel that the notion of democracy is CENTRAL to any reasonable political debate. While we are quite aware that people are not always right...even the vast majority of people...we think that the danger of a few people being wrong is much greater than the probability that the many will be. To us, democracy is the ultimate guarantee of political freedom. Without it, all talk of freedom is mere sophistry.
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