by Jack Lee
Are the masses too dumb or irresponsible to be trusted with something as important as the vote, without first passing some sort of qualification test?
This is a question that has been around since this nation held its first Constitutional Convention and we’ve agonized over it ever since.
Someone once said, “Democracy fails when the people realize they can vote themselves the treasury.” The least trusting of voters among the founding fathers was Alexander Hamilton and he makes a few points worth considering in light of today’s big government and wacky voting examples.
Currently the GOP represents a form of Hamiltonian realism. They support a strong executive branch, a strong military and a free market capitalist system, based on banking, credit, and the stock market. Liberals on the other hand tend to subscribe to the Jeffersonian concept, as underscored by philosophers like Marat and Robespierre.
They (Dems) believe in the perfectibility of the average man and have held out eternal optimism for the likes of populism. “The good sense of our people will direct the boat ultimately to its proper point.” Jefferson said. I think, why should we believe that? Are the masses here are any smarter than those in Asia, Europe or Russia? Did our IQ increase by crossing the Atlantic? Did those average human vices drop away like autumn leaves when the first European shoes touched the new American shore?
I think Hamilton was on to something when he said, “Every man ought to be supposed a knave and to have no other end in all his actions but private interests” and I agree, at least until proven otherwise. Conservatives like proof, don’t they? Sure, it gets in the way of fanciful ideas sometimes, like the silly notion that by heavily taxing the rich and giving it to the poor it make us stronger. Those eternally optimistic democrats often ignore the lessons of history. This works on a lot of people as our voting records will attest and we wonder why? But, we know, I think we are afraid to look at the honest answer, run-of-the-mill voters just aren’t that bright.
Hamilton felt people should at least have a good education coupled to a vested interest in preserving good government (property ownership) in order to cast a good vote. (Makes sense to me) Hamilton worried that the dull, the lazy, the itinerant and the illiterate of this new nation would always outnumber the brighter, better educated and the harder working people. And that by that twist of DNA fate, it would be the lesser of us, not the better of us, that would cast the deciding vote to chart the course of government in many popular elections.
Hamilton was rightly concerned the masses would empower themselves to the point of pillaging the treasury and passing laws contrary to the founding principles of the republic, i.e. wealth shifting.
The founders of course agreed with Hamilton, in principle, and this is why we have certain provisions in the Constitution for a representative government, as a Republic and not a pure democracy. It is also why we have those important checks and balances! However, I have to wonder if populism had too much influence on steering our boat? Has the drfit toward populism undermined some of our rights, liberties and even weakened parts of our Constitution?
Hamiltons concerns are backed up by history, history that says an average democracy has a fairly short life of about 200-250 years; because it takes about that long before the people have done a thoroughly good job of mucking it all up and voting themselves in too many benefits while tearing down the rich and pursuing their own greedy interests facilitated vis–vis, the government they elect. Smart people are doomed to be outnumbered by dumb people and it’s always been that way. This is why a democracy is so fragile, it’s also why China was able to go through the so-called “Cultural Revolution” where the educated and well off fell prey to the uneducated by a sheer force of indoctrinated masses. The elite never had a chance.
Back in the USA we have too many dead people voting. I’m against the dead casting a vote, aren’t you? It’s just doesn’t seem right, yet many dead democrats will rise from the grave on Tuesday and vote.
We also have those mentally incompetent and senile voters sequestered away in institutions and care facilities who exist as virtual vegetables until Election Day when the recover and they cast their informed vote guided by the loving hands of their liberal caretakers…that doesn’t seem right either.
Now if we were to disallow those votes, count up all the felons who vote, the illegal vote, and then exclude those and all the voters with an I.Q. under 80, I strongly suspect we would lose at least 60% of the Democratic Party and the GOP would probably lose less than 5%. But, should we really consider that… a loss? That’s a lot of votes to exclude and liberals must surely question is it really fair to exclude all of those voters?
We (conservatives) confidently would say YES of course! But, the leftist dems, who now outnumber us, would have to say NAY! After all, they control the dead, dumb and illegal (DDI) vote and that could be their winning edge come Tuesday as it has in so many past elections. And dare I say it, if we were excluded all the die hard communists, socialists, those who hate America, the people who hate rich, the race baiters and those who believe they are owed something by the government….we have just decimated the ranks of the Democrats, the remainder of the party would be relegated to a 3rd Party status …far behind the Green Party in status and number.