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I Think Not! Al Gore and his cohorts have made some interesting "pitches" recently in the hotly-contested Florida election fiasco. One of them is the appeal that it is the "will of the people" that needs to be the criterion that determines the outcome of the presidential election. Another is the proposition that every vote must be counted even if takes a psychic to determine the voter's "intent," or something called "democracy" will suffer as a result. I have a few comments about both of these concepts. First, it is not the "will of the people" that is the primary criterion that should determine the outcome of this election. Many of our Founding Fathers were well aware of the problems associated with this idea. If by the "will of the people" we mean that 51 percent decides any matter and this is taken as an absolute criterion, then it is possible for the 51 percent to enslave the remaining 49 percent and an appeal to the "will of the people" would justify such a phenomenon. The black community, and a majority of that community seems to fall prey to Gore's concept of the "will of the people," needs to understand that it was the "will of the people" that kept them in second-class status for generations. It was not the "will of the people" that eventually freed them and guaranteed their civil rights. Second, the term "democracy" is a very slippery word. It can mean different things to different people, and to different dictators and tyrants (remember, many communist countries used the term "democracy" in identifying their country). The United States has never been an "unqualified" or "pure democracy." It is a "representative democracy" with many built-in protections against the tyranny of the majority or, in other words, protections from, what else?, the "will of the people." To be sure, the will of the people is a vital concept in our political community. But this will of the people is and must be restrained by the "rule of law." And this idea, the rule of law, is essential to our understanding of how "democracy" works in the United States. If we are to truly describe the government of the United States, we must use four terms to define it. Each of these terms and their proper definition is essential. Each term must enjoy equal status and no one of them should be emphasized to the detriment of the others. Otherwise we are on the road to tyranny, a road taken by so many other countries yesterday and today. The United States is a Constitutional Democratic Federal Republic. Each of these terms is important. The term "constitutional" means we operate under a rule of law with well-defined political structures and processes. The term "democracy" means we are citizens, and not subjects, and that the government rests on the consent of the governed and that the "will of the people" shall prevail "as long as that will is balanced by and influenced by and controlled by the "rule of law" (the constitutional provisions). The term "federal" means their is a balance of power between a central government and its political constituents; in the case of the United States, between the government in Washington, D.C. and the governments in the 50 states. The term "republic" means that the citizens determine policies and laws through elected officials and representatives and that no individual has a vested right to political office. I submit that all four terms are equally important in describing the government we have in the United States. Al Gore's over-emphasis on the concept of "democracy" to the exclusion of the other necessary concepts is without justification. His suggestion that our "democracy" will suffer if every single Florida vote is not counted (including those whose "intent" must somehow be devined) is ridiculous. His absolute dependence on the criterion of the "will of the people," without it being tempered by the "rule of law," is downright dangerous. So, I repeat. The United States is a Constitutional Democratic Federal Republic. Take away one of these legs of the political stool and the stool will tip over. I submit that it is because of the important of each one of these legs that the United States has been able to maintain a relatively stable political system for over 200 years. Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Book... Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Magazine... Academy Showcase Specials Main Page & Index
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