Re: The Electoral "College" and combinatorics

From: Acid Pooh (poohonlsd_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 07/29/04 

Date: 28 Jul 2004 17:03:34 -0700

Bart Goddard <goddardbe@netscape.net> wrote in message news:<Xns95337FC29F5E8goddardb@129.250.170.88>...

> The "tyranny of the majority" is something to be avoided, and
> the framers of the Constitution knew it. California, with all
> of its referendums which are so easily put on the ballot is
> a case study. If it's easy to have votes on things, AND the
> majority always gets its way, then silly things happen:
>
> 1. Let's get a referendum going to raise minimum wage to
> $100/hour. Such a thing would surely pass. And would
> surely cause horrible inflation if it did not completely
> destroy our economy.
>
> 2. Likewise, we could vote away our taxes. (CA being an
> example.) We're all for that, but what a disaster.
>
> 3. If the "will of the people" is that all blondes become
> indentures slaves, then should it happen?
> The majority does not get to override the Constitution, and
> for good reason. We are not a country of "majority rule",
> but of "constitution rule." And thank God.

We can easily make the Constitution compatible with direct democracy
instead of republicanism. In fact, all it would take would be a
constitutional amendment. (Not that it would ever pass. No
Congressman would ever give up his priviledged position) Frankly, the
most important part of the Constitution isn't the part where a
specific governmental paradigm is mapped, but the Bill of Rights,
which is flexible enough to protect our rights in any governmental
paradigm which adopts it--including a direct democracy.

> The checks and balances here are that candidates have to
> please the people to stay in power. The people can't have
> zero taxes AND the roads fixed at the same time, no matter
> how much they vote to change the economy. But if the "ins"
> don't upset them too much and the garbage gets picked up,
> then the "ins" stay "in".
>

Yes -- it's much too easy to stay in power. All one has to do is lie
pathologically.

'cid 'ooh

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