• BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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    1 day ago

    The only people who complain about the “tryranny of the majority” are those who support some ridiculous governmental system that would be terrible for everyone but a lucky few, usually the richest, but sometimes just the most ruthless, who then go on to become the richest. They need to demonize the majority, so they can implement their oppressive system.

    When Adams was talking about the “tyranny of the majority,” he was talking about the fact that while the majority would rule this nation, they had to do it benevolently, and remember that an elected representative represents ALL of his constituents, not just those who voted for him. Those who are in the minority deserve proper representation and support from their government just as much as those in the majority, perhaps more. He was warning against those in power abusing those out of power. He wasn’t saying that he didn’t want the majority to rule, otherwise they wouldn’t have put ELECTIONS into the Constitution.

    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      He was saying that the majority can’t be trusted to rule on their own and they need to be controlled, otherwise they wouldn’t have put non-electoral branches into the Constitution.

      The Senate wasn’t even elected until 1913! The Supreme Court still is an unelected body, and we still have an Electoral College. Even if we ignore the fact that slaves couldn’t vote (we shouldn’t ignore it, but even if we do) women couldn’t vote and they’re half the fucking country! In most states you had to own property to vote, which was only 6% of the fucking population! These mechanisms were put in by the Founders because they wanted to restrain democracy and you only deny this because you were trained this way by your own government-run schools. Try reading something that wasn’t assigned by the government. I recommend Lies My Teacher Told Me, The American Counterrevolution of 1776, and Black Reconstruction.

      The only reason elections are in the Constitution is because they needed popular support for their independence from England. People wouldn’t have picked up guns to fight for independence unless they got something out of it, and so they promised rich land owners that they could have a say in the government. That’s it.

      Face facts, the US is not a democracy and it never was and it wasn’t intended to be.