My political philosophy: a thread for Radar

[Undertoad]

Government decided for itself that it had more power. This is when the people failed to do their duty and force government to abide by the Constitution because they might have thought it's a good idea. But they didn't realize that when you give government the power to do good things, the next guy will use that power to do bad things.

Right, but there's my point smack dab in the middle of yours: the people failed.

They didn't realize; or, more likely, they ran the numbers and decided that they'd prefer to have the government arm swing their way.

They continue to want more government than you or I would like. And every election they are given the opportunity to speak, and they do not tell us they want less government, in any numbers.

(And the people who do not vote are those who believe the problem is so trivial to their lives that they can't spare an hour of time per year to say anything at all.)

They might be wrong, but I can't imagine anything more frightening than taking away their right to vote for their own government on the basis of the idea that they don't use it properly.

In fact, I believe that being able to vote for one's representation is part of MY definition of "free".

And so I believe that the perfectly free country is not finished being established with the perfect founding document. The perfect founding document is a thing of logic and semantics; the perfectly free country is maintained by a people who, in the majority, WANT to be perfectly free.

And so, in turn, a government that you would establish through armed revolution would not last either, unless the people, in the great majority, want to be perfectly free.

And so, in turn, the only rational long-term approach to this problem is through education.