American democracy & majority rule

[JUGGERNAUT]

The issue of majority opinion/rights vs minority opinion/rights is popping up in just about any domestic thread so rather than debating it again & again in each of those threads let's just do it in this one.

 

America is reaching unprecedented levels of both highly educated & legally degreed citizens. Roughly speaking for every elected official there are at least 10000 more persons in the US that are as good or better educated than the elected official. Clearly the system of government put in place over 200 yrs ago has short-comings in repesentation today.

 

As America moves further ahead with electronic voting, the question pops up as to whether that voting should be extended to bills & measures as well. Essentially that moves the country towards one that the majority opinion defines. Today the media is moving in that direction as it seems every week there are at least 3 polls/surveys taken on issues in America. We know during the Clinton admn these were used instrumentally to run the country. We also know that Bush is facing trouble in re-election because he has decided to defy those results on issues in his own admn.

 

Moving from poll/surveys to actual votes is not a process that can be taken lightly.

First off the votes must be classified in terms of education. Rooney on 60 minutes suggested a chamber in govt for Professors. Well I think that's a bit aristocratic for most Americans taste. But I can't see how they would object to votes classified in terms of education: non-college, college, masters, & Phds. Now these votes won't directly affect policy but they will create a strong basis for an argument on how our representatives should vote on issues. As Rooney suggested it would be most difficult for a representative to create an argument justifying a vote that opposed the educated majority.

 

Now inevitably this is going to cause conflict with the traditional basis for minority/individual rights. I have argued repeatedly that the only true individual rights that exist are those agreed upon by the majority. Others believe that there are certain rights that exist beyond the opinion of the majority. Perhaps in a God-based country that argument holds water, but when God is removed from the equation it does not. When God is removed from the equation than so to is the concept of universal morality. What remains is relative morality. Morality relative to majority opinion.

 

Believe it or not, I a patron of the God-based country theme who believes in relative morality. Because I do not believe that God ever intended for us to legislate morality to begin with. What he intended was for man to act upon a developed conscience. To that effect morality should never have been legislated but rather taught. In that regards the only rights that I feel are unalienable are those of free-speech & access to free-speech. The later one was never incorporated in American society. It was determined by wealth & the means to produce wealth (capitalism). The most important individual right is that every voice nor matter how small as the ability to be heard. In an ideal world every opinion would be made available to the general public & in a round robin fashion so that each had equal access time. And albeit this is not a minor point to this debate it is a tangental one.

 

Now some of you will argue that if we moved in the direction of a government much more reflective of the citizenry that we would open the door to the ills of majority rule such as slavery, hangings, etc. But such a viewpoint ignores the fact that by classifying the votes between college-degreed & non-degreed persons the likelihood of a majority of college-degreed persons supporting such a decision is less than the likelihood of a constitutional amendment to repeal such a right. Equally as important the data will provide us the separation between degreed & non--degreed citizens so that we will understand the short-comings of our elementary & high school levels.

 

I believe that it should be in our best interest as an evolving nation who believes in the spirit of & ideals of democracy to move in the direction in which the country is driven by majority opinion. I believe this issue is more important than the debate between which business sectors should be privately or publicly owned as this direction would undoubtedly weigh heavily on those issues.

 

I believe that fear of the majority opinion is unfounded in this day & age. For every one of us who think we are God's gift to the world in intelligence I assure you there are many more who are as good of better in that area than you or I.