> The politicians in Washington are *representatives,* not delegates. The
> system was designed specifically to diminish the force of *day-to-day*
> public opinion in the crafting of our laws. The Senate, especially, was
> designed to incorporate a significant lag time by virtue of the longer
> (and staggered) terms of office.
>
> The framers of the American Constitution understood (well, and quite
> correctly) that the greatest threat of tyranny faced by the American
> people was tyranny on the part of *government,* and most particularly a
> tyranny of the majority. That is the basis of the balance of powers
> laid out in the Constitution. Direct democracy, or near substitutes
> such as suggested in Mr. Davidson's post, is perhaps the speediest and
> most direct path to tyranny of the majority, if for no other reason
> than that the decisions arising therefrom are subject to the
> *unbuffered* whims of day-to-day public opinion.
-----------------------------------------------------
Bart's entire post is worth serious reflection. As he states, the framers of the
Constitution were indeed concerned about the uninformed populus and saw the
elected representatives as individuals who had a serious commitment to
governance and the time and capabilities to act in an informed manner for the
long term benefit of the country. As a group, these founding fathers had
reservations as to who should even have the ability to vote and thus we have a
republic and not a democracy (but then, even the Greeks did not have a true
democracy either)
Given the current participation in public debate and in the election of
officials, one may even believe that the founding fathers were prescient. Given
the willingness of the public to become informed and to actively participate,
even at the local level, one might also have serious questions.
Then, again, we must ask, in relationship to sustainable agriculture, whether
this wisdom of our representatives ever existed in spirit or in fact. This
becomes questionable when one looks at the history of the legislation which has
been enacted in support of taking this country from sea to shining sea in a
couple of centuries and has, by legislative fiat created and promoted the
implementation of the current policies which are and have been impacting on the
entire past, present and future of agriculture in the US and, to a large extent,
globally.
thoughts?
tom abeles
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