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From: wmartin@brl-vgr.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: Re: Martillo and Logic
Message-ID: <1579@brl-vgr.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 8-May-84 08:26:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: brl-vgr.1579
Posted: Tue May  8 08:26:58 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 13-May-84 00:32:13 EDT
References: <855@eosp1.UUCP>
Organization: Ballistics Research Lab
Lines: 33

>From Tobias Robison:

>  Martillo notes that the Greeks discovered 2000 years ago, a problem
>  with democracy -- that if the majority want to do something rotten, nothing
>  can be done about it.
>  
>  This need not be true, and is not true in the democracy of the United
>  States.  Many people share the misconception that Martillo stated.
>  
>  Our government provides many checks and balances against majority
>  opinion.  In particular, many things the majority might decide to do
>  are unconstitutional, and many other things could not be enacted into
>  law because our legislators are given sufficient means to prevent
>  enactment even when in the minority.
>  
>  					- Toby Robison (not Robinson!)

This is because we have a REPUBLIC, NOT a "democracy". This difference
is what gives us our "checks & balances". There is a common belief, 
supported by fuzzy terminology, that "democracy" is a wonderful and
desirable system of government. It is not. It has the defects inherent
in rule by the mob, and the current discussion, on the net and elsewhere,
encouraging "participatory democracy" with electronic voting by all on
isssues of the day and other methods of rapid response to the "will of
the people" are leading to a degradation of the government by moving
it away from the republic and toward the democracy.

Remember that a responsive and quick-acting government is a terrible
threat. The "inaction" of the legislative branch, and the struggles
between it, the executive, and the judicial, are POSITIVE GOODS, not
"evils", of our system of government. 

Will