Re:Most Americans support using the popular vote to decide U...
by mikelevins on Wednesday August 10, 2022 @09:13AM
(#32411364)
The founders didn’t all have the same opinion on these matters, not by a long shot.
It’s true that they didn’t generally hold democracy in high esteem. They were too well aware of its past failures, and wary of repeating them. They in fact avoided using the word "democracy" for that reason.
And yes, several of them were keen on increasing the power of the federal government. The US constitution was written in a context where the federal government had been hobbled because under the Articles of Confederation it didn’t have enough power to carry out its policies.
In retrospect it looks to me like they might have been able to make the Articles work, maybe with some adjustments, but they didn’t think so, in the end, and of course they were closer to the situation than I am, so even I take my opinion with a grain of salt.
It’s true that they didn’t generally hold democracy in high esteem. They were too well aware of its past failures, and wary of repeating them. They in fact avoided using the word "democracy" for that reason.
And yes, several of them were keen on increasing the power of the federal government. The US constitution was written in a context where the federal government had been hobbled because under the Articles of Confederation it didn’t have enough power to carry out its policies.
In retrospect it looks to me like they might have been able to make the Articles work, maybe with some adjustments, but they didn’t think so, in the end, and of course they were closer to the situation than I am, so even I take my opinion with a grain of salt.