[EL] Senator Mike Lee Hates Democracy

[sean at impactpolicymanagement.com]

That headline seems unduly harsh. My guess is that Sen. Lee was simply engaging in the incredibly pedantic and frankly obnoxious (on both sides of the question) debate over “are we a democracy or are we a republic?”

 

I wrote something on this topic a while back  that some might appreciate. I’ll skip over the part where I’m obviously taking a shot at the National Popular Vote interstate compact (or at least criticisms of the “undemocratic” Electoral College), but here’s the close which might be relevant here:

The truth is, nearly every democratic nation has elements of their political system that diverge from the “one person, one vote” principle to varying degrees, and for important reasons. Frequently, those divergences ensure some minimum level of representation for regions that might otherwise be left out or marginalized, such as the Scottish island of Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Iceland’s Northeast, Northwest, and Southeast constituencies, or the Northwest Territories, Nunuavut, and Yukon in Canada.

The Electoral College is simply a part of the United States’ way of doing what every other democratic nation on the Earth has done, which is to incorporate a number of features that limit in important ways the power of majorities or pluralities. The sum of those features, not simply adding up popular votes and giving the majority whatever it wants, is true democracy.

If you really want to read about how Norway came to be governed by the coalition that received the second-highest number of votes in the last election and other tidbits as well, you can read the full thing here: https://saveourstates.com/blog/democracy-is-more-than-adding-up-popular-votes

 

Sean Parnell

 


P.S. To date, the wildest divergence I’ve come across from pure “one person, one vote” orthodoxy is probably the Irish Senate (Seanad Éireann), where among other things six of the sixty members are elected by graduates of the National University of Ireland and the University of Dublin (3 each).


 

From: Law-election <law-election-bounces at department-lists.uci.edu> On Behalf Of Rick Hasen
Sent: Thursday, October 8, 2020 11:34 AM
To: Election Law Listserv <law-election at uci.edu>
Subject: [EL] ELB News and Commentary 10/8/20

 

 

 

 


 <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116465> Senator Mike Lee Hates Democracy


Posted on  <https://electionlawblog.org/?p=116465> October 8, 2020 8:20 am by  <https://electionlawblog.org/?author=3> Rick Hasen

 <https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/10/mike-lee-not-a-democracy-republican-trump-authoritarian.html> NY Mag:

Last night, livetweeting his thoughts on the 2020 vice-presidential debate, Republican senator Mike Lee decided it was an opportune moment to share one of his edgier political beliefs:  <https://twitter.com/SenMikeLee/status/1314016169993670656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1314016169993670656%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnymag.com%2Fintelligencer%2F2020%2F10%2Fmike-lee-not-a-democracy-republican-trump-authoritarian.html> Democracy is bad.

Lee is articulating a view that has long been in vogue on the American right but which Republican politicians were generally hesitant to express openly. The premise is that liberty is a higher value than democracy, and they define liberty to mean a right to property that precludes redistribution. That is to say, the far right does not merely view progressive taxation, regulation and the welfare state as impediments to growth, but as fundamentally oppressive. A political system that truly secured freedom would not allow the majority to gang up on the minority and redistribute their income for themselves.

 <https://twitter.com/rickhasen/status/1314043109026623490> My response last night:

 <https://www.addtoany.com/share#url=https%3A%2F%2Felectionlawblog.org%2F%3Fp%3D116465&title=Senator%20Mike%20Lee%20Hates%20Democracy> 

Posted in  <https://electionlawblog.org/?cat=1> Uncategorized

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