Category Archives: Liberating Thoughts

Liberating Thoughts, Politics

What is a Representative Democracy?

It would appear that people have forgotten the principles of representative government and why we elect representatives to the Congress every two years.

The holders of those offices certainly don’t want the people to think about how they are not doing their jobs. They would prefer to distract ‘The People’ and point to irrelvant issues to consider.

Taken in the light of ‘The People’ governing themselves, I don’t see very many liberals on the National Political Scene. And it may be that you have to sell your soul to get to that level. ‘The People’ don’t seem to have much to say about critical federal items like debt-ceiling and deficits. Everything seems to be pork barrel politics; get the goods for your district and keep the voters happy, even if you have to compromise your principles by supporting someone else’s bill that doesn’t really impact your district anyway.

And it may be that people just aren’t paying attention to what the idiots in DC are doing this term, because at the Federal level there aren’t that many items that have a direct daily impact on people. How your representative voted regarding salmon fishing farms of the coast of Washington State probably doesn’t have much impact on the average citizen not on the coast of Washington State. But what sort of deals were cut to get that vote?

Maybe, in the global scheme of things, Salmon Fish Farming has a role. I think that is part of why representatives are in Washington. To get the information together that will alow them to make an informed vote and not a bought vote. Their vote should be for their constituents first, and for the US second, if they do’t see their constituency as being a primary player.

We don’t have a very representative democracy anymore, here in the USA. There is 1 person representing almost 1 million citizens in Montana. That doesn’t sound very representative to me. On average, each representative represents 650,000 citizens. That doesn’t sound very representive to me. I think one representative for every 100,000 citizens is a fair goal. It may get a bit chaotic on the Hill trying to get 50% of 3000 representatives to agree on something, but democracy isn’t pretty.

I would actually suggest that a 2/3 majority is needed to pass a federal law, but that might be going to far. I’m willing to compromise on 50%+. If you can’t get 67% of the representatives to agree on a budget, maybe there are some things in it that don’t belong there.

Liberating Thoughts, Politics

What is a Liberal?

I can across this commentary last week and it addressed a question I have been puzzling about for a while.

“What exactly is a Liberal?”

I have peripherally been following the Conservative/Liberal clash in the US and am puzzled why the term ‘Liberal’ has picked up such a bad connotation. ‘Liberal’ has been the hallmark of American politics for over 220 years.

Mahablog answers this in a perceptive way, A liberal is one who believes that ‘The People’ can govern themsleves; a conservative believes that ‘The People’ can’t govern themselves, but instead appeals to a higher or singular authority to enable governance. (This makes Scalia’s comment a lot more obvious.)

The conservative approach is to appeal to a higher authority, to deify or sanctify one individual, usually the President in US politics, and say that he is the Ruler and that what he wants is the ‘right thing’ and that all who oppose him are evil. If the President doesn’t come up to snuff, then you can point to an ayatollah or a newt for governance.

Kings, Caesars, Dictators, High Priests, Archbishops, Witch Doctors, Chiefs, Elders, Popes, Jedi Knights. These are all higher authorities that people look to for guidance. So often, it is the cultural background that demands obedience without evidence. And questioning them for the evidence is heresy and undermines the faith of others. Faith. That is the ultimate appeal of the higher authority. You don’t need evidence if you have faith.

When ‘The People’ singularly, or within groups, give up their right to determine for themselves who shall represent them, and instead follow the dictates of a demagogue who is influenced and guided by larger demagogues, then democracy is lost.

It will be interesting to see what happens in Iraq in the next few years. My impression, albeit from sketchy sources, is that the Iraqi people don’t necessarily believe that ‘The People’ should govern themselves. There are learned and wise people who have studied the arts of governance and they are the ones that need to be in charge. How they determine the top dog is their problem, not a problem for ‘The People’. I hope I am wrong. I hope that the Iraqi’s will work out the governance problems and become liberals. We shall see.

Democracy is not pretty. Democracy involves working with people you wouldn’t want within a thousand meters of you. Democracy means being a liberal.