{"id":81666,"date":"2022-05-31T09:25:20","date_gmt":"2022-05-31T14:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=81666"},"modified":"2022-05-31T09:31:32","modified_gmt":"2022-05-31T14:31:32","slug":"81666","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=81666","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

US mass shootings will continue until the majority can overrule the minority. Guns symbolize the power of a minority over the majority, and they\u2019ve become the icons of a party that has become a cult seeking minority power<\/em><\/a>
\nRebecca Solnit<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Again, it’s nice when they supply the means for positive identification.<\/p>\n

This,<\/em><\/strong> right there in black and white<\/em>, is what the Bill of Rights is all about. The protection of minority rights over the tyranny of a majority that the founders knew from the lessons of history were all too commonplace in a ‘democracy’ where the masses could be swayed (like this airhead) into advocating riding over the rights of the populace in the search for their version of Utopia that has always turned into Hell.<\/p>\n

\n

Preventing “The Tyranny of the Majority”<\/a><\/p>\n

People often refer to the United States as a democracy, but technically speaking, that\u2019s not true. It\u2019s a republic.<\/p>\n

Big deal, you say? If you care about your rights, it is. The Founding Fathers knew their history well, so they knew better than to establish the U.S. as a democracy.<\/p>\n

In a democracy, of course, the majority rules. That\u2019s all well and good for the majority, but what about the minority? Don\u2019t they have rights that deserve respect?<\/p>\n

Of course they do. Which is why a democracy won\u2019t cut it. As the saying goes, a democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what\u2019s for dinner.<\/p>\n

The Founders were determined to forestall the inherent dangers of what James Madison called \u201cthe tyranny of the majority.\u201d So they constructed something more lasting: a republic. Something with checks and balances. A system of government carefully balanced to safeguard the rights of both the majority and the minority.<\/p>\n

That led, most notably, to the bicameral structure of our legislative branch. We have a House of Representatives, where the number of members is greater for more populous states (which obviously favors those states), and the Senate, where every state from Rhode Island and Alaska to California and New York have exactly two representatives (which keeps less-populated states from being steamrolled).<\/p>\n

Being a republic, we also don\u2019t pick our president through a direct, majority-take-all vote. We have an Electoral College. And a lot of liberals don\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n

Their attacks on the College are nothing new, but the defeat of Hillary Clinton in 2016 renewed their fury. After all, as they never tire of pointing out, Mrs. Clinton captured more of the popular vote than Donald Trump did. They see the Electoral College as an impediment to their political victories, therefore it\u2019s got to go.<\/p>\n

The latest attack comes via new lawsuits filed in federal courts in four states (Massachusetts, California, South Carolina and Texas). \u201cUnder the winner-take-all system, U.S. citizens have been denied their constitutional right to an equal vote in presidential elections,\u201d said David Boies, an attorney who represented former Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 election.<\/p>\n

I doubt Mr. Boies and his fellow attorneys are really ignorant of why we have an Electoral College. But it\u2019s important that the rest of us know.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Electoral College is a very carefully considered structure the Framers of the Constitution set up to balance the competing interests of large and small states,\u201d writes Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission. \u201cIt prevents candidates from wining an election by focusing only on high-population urban centers (the big cities), ignoring smaller states and the more rural areas of the country \u2014 the places that progressives and media elites consider flyover country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most people who watch the election returns know that a candidate must secure 270 electoral votes to win. That\u2019s because there are 538 votes altogether. As the website for the National Archives notes, \u201cYour state\u2019s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, the Founders were looking out for the people in \u201cflyover country\u201d long before there were airplanes to fly over them.<\/p>\n

Were it not for the Electoral College, presidential candidates could act as if many Americans don\u2019t even exist. They could simply campaign in a small handful of states with big populations. Who would care what the people in Iowa think? Or Wyoming? Or any number of other states with smaller populations?<\/p>\n

The people in \u201cflyover country\u201d don\u2019t get enough attention as it is, but without the Electoral College, they\u2019d be completely at the mercy of the majority.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s face it \u2014 that\u2019s often not a great place to be. As the Austrian political philosopher Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn dryly observed in his book \u201cLeftism,\u201d the crucifixion of Jesus was \u201ca democratic event.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the wolves want matters, but so does what the sheep wants. The Electoral College ensures that no one winds up on the menu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US mass shootings will continue until the majority can overrule the minority. Guns symbolize the power of a minority over the majority, and they\u2019ve become the icons of a party that has become a cult seeking minority power Rebecca Solnit   Again, it’s nice when they supply the means for positive identification. This, right there … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,75,24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-enemies-foreign-domestic","category-media","category-rights","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81666"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81674,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81666\/revisions\/81674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}