Quick: Which fact in Washington is more outrageous?(1) We don't have majority rule in America, thanks to the Senate filibuster rules; or(2) The Democrats' plan for "controversial" filibuster reform doesn't actually seek to establish majority rule in America.It's a close call, but I'll take No. 2. Apparently making a full-throated case for majority rule is too controversial a step in the year 2011 in the world's leading democracy.I'm having a hard time explaining this to my 13-year-old daughter. She gets that the Bill of Rights protects certain fundamental liberties against even a determined majority's thirst to trample on them.But protecting a determined minority's desire to thwart the will of the majority on legislation of all kinds? A minority that might represent as little as 15 percent of the population?It's not clear what theory of governance elevates the tyranny of the minority into a sacred principle.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Can't we just have majority rule?
From Matt Miller of The Washington Post on Jan. 6:
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1 comments:
Technically speaking we are not a democracy. We are a republic. Those rules were put into place in order to protect everyone so things couldn't be rammed through without giving a hearing to members of a state. I am ok with no majority rule. It isn't healthy thing, as you said people can take advantage of force things through against the will of a substancial amount of the states.
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