Posted on 06/01/2020 1:22:43 AM PDT by Jacquerie
Theres an ages-old problem with republics: majoritarian tyranny. If the law is whatever the fifty percent plus one of the people or their reps determine, then the legislative body is little different in practice from the typical Florida Homeowners Association, and the nation should expect similar results. Thanks to the 17th Amendment, the Senate long ago abandoned its deliberative nature and adopted the passionate, popularly reflexive nature of the House. It is why party interests, rather than those of the nation, came to dominate congress. We see this regularly when Senator Schumer joins Speaker Pelosi in wild proposals that threaten liberty.
The Framers based their solution to the danger of majoritarianism on their assessment of human nature. Early at the federal convention, James Madison asked:
Instead of reliance on religion, virtue, or conscience, they would depend on the realistic, admittedly ignoble, but reliable inclination of men to follow their self-interest as the path to good government.
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