Apparently some people (including many running for President) didn't learn anything about government in high school, they have forgotten or just don't care to be right. I know that there was a certain little lady named Mrs. Coker that taught a host of students in Neosho about civics.
I was one of those students and I might not remember everything that she taught but I think I have a pretty good grasp of basic Civics. First and foremost, we do not live in a democracy. Please repeat after me, we do NOT live in a democracy. The United States of America is a republic.
“Our founding fathers were a whole heck of a lot smarter than anyone in government today because they knew that a democracy would never work. That’s why they set us up as a republic and it has worked pretty darn good for well over 200 years.”
In a democracy, all eligible citizens get equal say in decisions and rule is by the majority with no protections for the minority. In a republic, eligible citizens get equal say in decisions through elected representatives and the minority is protected by laws to prevent abuse by the majority.
Our founding fathers were a whole heck of a lot smarter than anyone in government today because they knew that a democracy would never work. That's why they set us up as a republic and it has worked pretty darn good for well over 200 years.
Secondly, contrary to what many may think, our current system of electing the President also was a product of the genius of our founding fathers. Though some may think it is complicated, the electoral college has worked just as it was envisioned by the geniuses who put our system into place.
Direct vote sounds fair until you start examining it closely. The liberal regressives would love to abolish the electoral college. Think about this, most large cities are run by liberals. If we had direct election of the President then candidates would only have to win a handful of those large cities and the rest of the country would be governed by New York City and Los Angeles liberal ideology.
Look at who is pushing this agenda and you might understand why it is such a bad idea. But again, people have either not learned, forgotten or just don't care why Jefferson and the rest of our founding fathers did what they did.
And finally, if a politician tells you what they are going to do when they get elected, listen very carefully to see if they can actually do it. Unless they are the President and have executive power over a certain issue then they can't promise to do anything but try to implement policies.
Trump can't make companies buy from countries other than China, Bernie Sanders can't forgive medical debt and Elizabeth Warren can't forgive student debt. They may want these things to happen but they don't have the power to do it by themselves.
Unfortunately, people are eating this promise of free stuff up and the socialist branch of the Democratic party (which includes pretty much everyone running for President) just keeps on trying to buy votes with more promises of stuff.
If people don't wake up and pay attention to what's happening, we are going to wake up to a nation that our forefathers feared we would become -- governed by a ruling class that promises everything paid for by their serfs (the voters).
--KEVIN WILSON IS A FORMER MISSOURI STATE REPRESENTATIVE WHO WAS BORN IN GOODMAN, MO., AND NOW LIVES IN NEOSHO. OPINIONS ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR.
Editorial on 09/18/2019