The "Infinite Wisdom of the American People"                       Index

Apart from the fact that God alone has infinite wisdom, does anyone really expect even moderate wisdom from the American majority at any given time? Once, in a wiser age than ours, the majority was rudely termed "the multitude" and was famous for its fickleness and vanity. You can't make a multitude wise by calling it a majority.  And majorities are capable of almost infinite whimsy and stupidity.

That's why our Founders gave us a representative government, a republic, rather than a direct democracy. They knew the potential for chaos and tyranny in popular government.  So they provided that the whims and momentary moods of the people be would be wisely weighed and tempered by representatives chosen (it was hoped) from the brightest and best. Otherwise the will of the majority could easily become the tyranny of the mob.

The only reason that popular government is preferable to all others is that no one is good or wise enough to be entrusted with absolute power. The people must have the final say. But that is worlds away from saying that the people are always wise, much less infinitely wise.

We are moving away from the deliberative process intended by our Fathers and towards the direct democracy they feared. When poll-watching becomes the most significant part of our political life, we risk the very abuses of popular power our system was designed to prevent.                            

 "A democracy is a state in which the poor, gaining the upper hand, kill some and banish others, and then divide the offices among the remaining citizens equally, usually by lot." --Plato