Winston Apple

Anti-democratic provisions in our Constitution

Any provisions in a constitution or in the electoral process that give a minority or a single person the ability to block legislation that has the support of a majority of the citizens from being passed into law are anti-democratic.  There are numerous such provisions within the Constitution of the United States.

CHECKS ON THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES = MINORITY RULE 

It may shock many Americans to learn that the 55 men who drafted our Constitution, with few exceptions, were not fond of democracy. They did not trust we, the people, to vote wisely. They knew that they could not leave the people out of the government altogether, the Declaration of Independence had stated that governments derive their "just powers from the consent of the governed."  

The people had a strong role in the government of many of the 13 "free and independent states" under the Articles of Confederation. So, they reluctantly gave the people one-half of one of the three branches of government - the House of Representatives - and then gave the rest of the government three "checks" on any legislation passed by the House. The Senate had to concur. The president could veto legislation. And the Supreme Court could declare a law to be unconstitutional.  

And none of these other three branches were elected by the people. The Senate was originally elected by state legislatures. The president was (and still is) elected by the Electoral College, not by popular vote. And Supreme Court Justices were (and are) nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. 

EVEN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES RARELY REPRESENTS THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE  

As a result of gerrymandering, the influence wielded by lobbyists, the effects of "winner-take-all" elections combined with single-member congressional districts, and the undue influence of money in our elections (including massive amounts of money from corporate interests and plutocrats), the House of Representatives does a better job of representing corporate interests and tax-averse billionaires than it does of representing we, the people.  

THE "GOVERNED" HAVE NOT GIVEN THEIR "CONSENT" 

The word “democracy” does not appear anywhere in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. The Declaration of Independence does say that governments deriving their “just powers from the consent of the governed”. That meets the definition of democracy, provided the governed give their "consent" in free and fair elections. The primary problem with elections in the United States is that voters have a very limited range of choices with regard to viable candidates.  

The Constitution (in Article IV, Section 4) does state that “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government.” The term "republic" is synonymous with "representative democracy", but our state governments generally do a poor job of representing the will of the people.   Like Congress, state legislatures do a better job of representing corporate interests than they do of representing people.

The standard response to that assertion that the government of the United States is not a democracy is that it is a republic.  To the extent that acts of Congress represent the will of the people, that statement would be true.  And there have been times when acts of Congress have matched the will of the people.  Far too often, however, the acts of Congress, as well as the failure of Congress to act, have not matched the will of the people.  This fact is reflected not only by the consistently low approval ratings given to Congress by voters, but also in research done at Stanford University that showed no correlation between the will of the people and the likelihood of a given bill being passed into law.  On the other hand, both Congress and presidents, especially over the past forty to fifty years, have done a good job of representing the interests of corporations and wealthy individuals. 

The word “democracy” does not appear anywhere in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution.  The Declaration of Independence does say that governments deriving their “just powers from the consent of the governed”.  That meets the definition of democracy.  The Constitution (in Article IV, Section 4) states that “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government.”  The fact that state legislatures do not consistently represent the will of the people is proof of failure to do so on the part of the “United States” to fulfill that guarantee. 

The use of “winner-take-all” elections with plurality winners for offices where there can only be a single winner is also potentially undemocratic in elections where there is only a single candidate or more than two candidates for a single office or a single seat in Congress or a state legislature.

The key to making America a true democracy is to reform our electoral process to elect a Congress and state legislatures that will accurately reflect the will of the people and then remove undemocratic "checks" on these truly democratic legislatures.