Tag Archives: US Constitution

Majority Rules or Does It?

Can the minority actually allow the majority to rule? Even in divisive issues like abortion, racism, and military action?

Our governing document, the U.S. Constitution, tends toward realism. The first words are: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union . . .”

The first union, under the Articles of Confederation, after the war for independence from Britain, was a failure. That union proved unworkable, more a collection of individual nation states failing to act as one nation.

This new attempt to create a “more perfect” union implied the impossibility of an actual perfect union. We are always striving for it.

Almost any issue can cause conflict. Most conflicts involve small numbers of people, however. Bigger issues often are ones of conscience.

On these bigger issues, some will strongly disagree with whatever action is taken. To use violence in response, however, only invites the other side toward actions of violence. Almost always, the conflict deepens, leading to harm of innocent people.

Perhaps the first reaction to what one considers an unjust law is patience and the realization that no one of us is perfect.

One avenue in such a time is speaking out. One of our most precious freedoms is freedom of speech. We use it to encourage what we believe are better laws and solutions, but in humility, knowing that our human reasoning is subject to error.

Some may consider civil disobedience—an act of simply not obeying the law, but not violently or in ways that would harm others.

For Americans, subject to strong beliefs and tendencies to see issues framed in black and white, restraint is difficult. Yet, patient wearing away is better by far than violence. Such patient action in the past has led to eventual major changes.

Was the Fourth of July Necessary?

The founding of the United States gave substance to the ideal of representative government. It remains a work in progress. The U.S. Constitution wasn’t written until several years after George Washington and his colleagues won the American war for independence. It did not even abolish slavery until almost a century after delegates met to write the Declaration of Independence that hot summer of 1776.

Yet the country born in 1776 (or in 1790, if you believe the U.S. Constitution was really the beginning) put flesh and blood on the skeleton sketched out by eighteenth century thinkers.
During those times, Thomas Paine wrote:

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered . . . “

It struck me that Paine’s words are very eighteenth century. Few kings are left today, and those who remain in Europe, including the ones Paine railed against, are constitutional monarchs. Britain’s parliament (its legislative body) passes the laws. The monarchy is more a symbol of the ties that bind the British together than the possessor of power.

The Declaration of Independence and Thomas Paine’s writings are woven through with the unjust actions of Britain’s soldiers and government of the time. Canada stayed on in the British sphere of influence and today is one of the most respected free nations of the world.

The crown erred, and the colonists, who had some good ideas, reacted with anger. Too bad the two sides weren’t able to reconcile.