Should Legislators be Free to Vote their Conscience?
The following is a true statement: “The best form of government is a dictatorship.”
Most of you may disagree with that statement, but it is true! A dictator needs neither a legislature nor advisors to make a decision. He simply analyzes an issue and declares what is best for his country. This exposes the lack of a crucial clarification in my statement. The missing clarification is the nature of the dictator, which I intentionally left out.
This is not a new problem. Plato first discussed dictatorship as the ideal form of government in his work, The Republic (c. 380 BC). In his case, Plato included the crucial clarification: his dictatorship was termed ‘aristocracy’ (a Greek word composed of aristos =' best’ and kratos =' state’), and this notion required that his ruler be a philosopher-king. This ideal leader was, as one would expect, grounded in wisdom and reason, and therefore sought what was best for his constituents. Remember, Plato’s king was an ideal— not a real guy! Plato also surmised that his mythical Republic would devolve over time through Timocracy, Oligarchy, and Democracy until it reached its final stage of Tyranny.
Fortunately, in the United States of America, we do not have a dictatorial form of government, although we may be heading toward one. Technically, we have a federal republic of states that swear allegiance to the Constitution. I apologize for reviewing something that you were supposed to learn in grade school.
We tend to view our republic as a democracy, but it is certainly not that. A democracy is a system where citizens vote to determine what becomes law. The last time anyone experienced that form of government was in ancient Greece, where democracy was an experiment of free citizens who directly voted to govern their city-state. This experiment, while innovative, somehow generated an explosion of energy, loyalty, and pride, enabling them to defeat invading enemy armies several hundred times their size. However, democracy has its own flaws— in fact, the same flaws as a dictatorship— us! We are the ‘fatal flaw’... the ‘fly in the ointment,’ so to speak!
Two thousand years later, some colonial malcontents, enduring the injustices imposed by an insane king 3,500 miles away, devised a new experiment that ancient Greeks never could ‘test’ (because the Romans conquered them). One of these brilliant malcontents, a disciple of the Athenian form of democracy, wrote to his fellow colonists words that would inspire a revolution: “When in the course of human events. . .”
Today, phrases like ‘the rule of law’ and ‘equal justice under the law’ are embedded into our consciousness. Collectively, most of us are comforted or inspired by that ideal. However, in our representative form of government, we relinquish the right to vote for laws to our elected representatives. The theory is that our representatives will take the collective will of their constituencies and vote for the will of the majority of its people. It has absolutely nothing to do with a legislator’s conscience.
Thankfully, we did not relinquish our right to elect our legislators. Our power as citizens is perhaps the most potent invisible force on earth— next to gravity. However, that power is unleashed only when two citizens unite with a shared purpose, growing stronger with each additional citizen who embraces the mission.
A Congressperson represents citizens located in their congressional district. There are 435 congressional districts in the United States House of Representatives, each with an average of 750,000 people. An often overlooked statistic: the population of approximately 11 million illegal immigrants currently residing in the U.S. is the equivalent of roughly 15 additional congressional districts.
Current technology permits congresspersons to maintain a database to monitor the district’s citizens and their positions on issues. Thus, it is within the technology and capability of Congress to provide a system to facilitate voting the will of the people.
The only solution for the long-term survival of our democratic republic (long-term: a metaphor for your grandkids) is the education of citizens to comprehend the formidable power and tremendous responsibility of this unique right and privilege, otherwise known as the U.S. citizen. Only then can we devise a method to discourage those who pursue service in government from giving in to their darker proclivities.
Hint: The method involves a smaller carrot and a much larger stick!
Solution:A Congressperson choosing to vote their conscience instead of the will of their constituency— is met with an immediate referendum for that representative’s removal from office. Incidentally, the ancient Athenians[1]had already thought of that.
[1] Aristotle, Constitution of Athens, 43.4.
