I’ve read that during the American Revolution, only 1/3 of the population sided with the rebel cause - the other 2/3 were loyalists to the Crown. Suppose a Marxist candidate is elected — we know he/she would consolidate power and steer us into full-blown Communism within 4-8 years. I wonder if a third of our population today would allow that?
The usual cliche is that after the publication of Thomas Paine’s ‘Common Sense’ in 1776 and the Declaration of Independence, 1/3 of the population of the colonies favored independence, 1/3 favored remaining attached to the UK, and 1/3 were neutral. This is only an estimate as there was no vote taken.
The justification for the 1/3 who favored independence imposing their will on the majority was based on the Enlightenment concept of the ‘National Will.’ That is the theory that the minority embodied the desire of the nation as a whole.
The concept of the National Will was used during the French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia to justify a minority taking the power of the state.