A Mandate from the People?

Scott Brown, the winner of the Massachusetts Senate seat of the late Teddy Kennedy, is one of a short but growing list of Republicans who weren’t supposed to win. It appears to some political fortune tellers that a backlash is growing to a hyperactive Democratic agenda of the prior year. Could it possibly be a “mandate from the people?”

A mandate from the people is something that imaginative politicians conjure up to give them license to do whatever they want. The Democratic Party embraced the idea after winning majorities in both houses of Congress and the presidency. It is an excuse for political activism, doing lots of legislating, just because they can. The mandate is not just a Democratic Party phenomenon. At various times the Republican Party was in the same position, even a few short years ago. They abused their power in the same way. Mandates are eventually repudiated by the people because they exist only in the minds of elected officials.

Some people believe that the job of politicians is to make laws. When something goes wrong, the first thing out of their mouths is “There ought to be a law!” Political gridlock is seen as a weakness in government because they can’t get things done. As we can see by what has been going on in Washington, gridlock is an absolute necessity and the only thing that can save the people from slavery to an arrogant political class.

In a constitutional republic, such as the United States, the fundamental job of elected officials is to protect the rights of citizens, which, in America, are broadly defined in the Bill of Rights attached to the Constitution. Every high official is required to take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. That Bill of Rights explicitly assigns all rights to the individual citizens, and limits the rights of government to those that are specifically listed.

The job of congress person should be a very easy one. There aren’t many laws which should be enacted by federal lawmakers. State and local governments are much closer to the people and are better able to know and serve their needs. The added benefit is that competition between states and localities puts pressure on elected officials. Those who abuse and oppress the citizens will lose them over time to other states and localities. The people are much less able to do that with the federal government because of the difficulties of having to learn a new language and a new culture of a foreign country. The further away from the people that the governing body is, the less accountability its officials have and the more abusive its legislation.

The present health care program being debated in congress, as well as in the home of every American, is an ideal case in point. Even if it is given that government should interfere with health care markets, the most appropriate approach for the best result is not known. Federal programs of all sorts have been such a disaster for so long that they cannot serve as a suitable template. They are bankrupting this country with tens of trillions of dollars in unrecorded liabilities and stomping on the rights of all Americans.

The fifty states have vastly different constituencies, needs and opportunities. Thousands of localities are not all the same, and identical solutions to problems are not going to work for all of them. If it was true that any government should and could make appropriate choices for the citizens regarding health care, which is far from a foregone conclusion, it would make sense to have different states or localities try their own unique flavors to see what works and what doesn’t work. Those states that abuse their productive citizens would be punished by having that productivity move away to other states that are less abusive.

There is, hopefully, a sea change taking place. Maybe Americans are waking up to the reality that their freedom is being progressively whittled away with each abusive law that is passed. Maybe they have realized that the men and women in our present congress are the authors of increasing tyranny. Maybe we can start reining in the monster that the federal government has become. One thing that I hope does not occur is an overwhelming mandate from the people.

This is the only mandate from the people: We are big boys and girls and don’t appreciate big brother trying to run our lives. Get out of our face.