Stressed out cat, my spirit animal.
The tree of liberty must be watered occasionally with the blood of traitors and tyrants
Great mantra, very high-minded and Freedom-loving. The only problem is when we discover, as we have now, that the would-be tyrant and his traitorous followers are a goodly piece of the electorate, part of the roots of the tree itself.
What is “Democracy” and how does it relate to “Liberty?” Can there be one without the other?
Does having one mean we can’t also have the other?
“Pure Democracy” relies on just the voters to make all the choices that their government operates on. Even if the voters are ignorant of the all the various issues they must continually vote on, each and every decision is theirs to make. The decisions are made by uninformed or knowledgeable voters, whether the decision is good or bad, it is enacted. The Majority decides everything for everyone by their absolute rule. Everyone voting for simply everything eats up the time of the voters, especially if they try to do research in order to make good choices. That leaves them with not a lot of time in which to research, debate, and vote. They simply can’t do all the required work to vote well while also trying to earn money to live on too. Many simply drop out and don’t vote, others depend on someone they trust to tell them how to vote. A very very few dedicate their time to the research, debate, and compromises needed to get a law passed.
Pure, unadulterated “Liberty” means just the opposite - that absolutely no one, even the Majority, can force their decisions on you to live under their laws. Absolute Liberty means there is no cohesion or groups larger than ones that share a common interest which makes larger decisions very difficult to reach for anything larger than a very small town. Once again, everyone has to spend their lives researching and making decisions and convincing others to join or not to join with their neighbors to do something or other (and also still have time to earn enough to live on).
These two unrealistic extremes must find a way to coexist. How can the Majority get the things they want without trampling on the rights, and beliefs (the Liberties”) of the Minority? How will anything that benefits the Majority be allowed to go forward if the Minority will not come together and agree to allow it?
Which version of “tyranny” will be bled to feed the Tree? That of the Minority or that of the Majority?
The Founders came up with Representative Democracy where we elect/hire, people to go do the research, debate the pros and cons, negotiate compromises, and finally vote on, the laws we all will live by. But, what if you want more Liberty than this compromise National method allows? You work to have your smaller government area, your State, make laws that you agree with, but disagree with the national laws, and then tell the national government to “take a hike and leave us alone — State’s Rights.” If the National government says, “No, you can’t do that, you have to follow the rules we all agreed on.” — you secede and fight a bloody war to have your way. When you lose, you still carry on unofficially as best you can while avoiding the oversight and supervision of the national government. You do this for years and years as the national government falls into the belief that your attitudes and beliefs have faded away and are gone instead of noticing what the state’s population was doing despite the national laws.
The current White Power, racist splinter minority is determined to get rid of “the other” with their different skin tone (easiest to spot) cultures, ideas, beliefs, and other differences that continually force them to deal with the other’s differences as the others become yet another group that will likely align with the Majority against their oppressive Minority so must be disallowed from voting or running for office.
As the Majority/Minority struggles go on and bigots wave “the others” in the gullible media’s faces to distract from their own crimes against the Majority’s laws, we will all be forced to reevaluate the meaning and value of Liberty and Democracy.
With voter turnout hovering around 50% in a “GOOD” year, the ability of motivated and united minorities to overcome the majority at the polls becomes more and more feasible and locally probable. 33% of voters could, and in fact did, take over a national party and elected whatever lying, groping & grifting loudmouth they wanted.
This is something to keep in the forefront of your mind:
“As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be occupied by a down right fool and complete narcissistic moron.” -H.L. Mencken, 1920
Mencken left out a few more words after “narcissistic moron” … “with good looking hair and the voice and heart of a lying bully.”
