Aaron Keith Harris
2006-11-17 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

W hile the television talkers and political pundits are still trying to predict what will happen in Washington as a result of last week’s elections, take a moment to reflect on how our brand of democracy can both comfort and madden.

The Founding Fathers did us a favor by mandating elections at short, regular intervals. Those in power can’t get too comfortable, and those out don’t have too long to be frustrated.

The McCain-Feingold types complain that this forces our politicians into perpetual campaign mode. But what’s wrong with that? The threat of being tossed from office forces representatives to at least go through the motions of listening to their constituents. And every moment a member of Congress sits at his or her campaign office dialing for dollars is a moment he or she isn’t conspiring to pass a bill for water-free urinals in Grand Rapids, Mich. or a teapot museum in Sparta, N.C. (Both of which are real, according to Citizens Against Government Waste.)

Media outlets play their traditional parts: Newspapers run editorials scolding Americans who don’t vote, CNN runs specials designed to defeat Republicans (“Where the Right Went Wrong,” “Broken Government” and “War on the Middle Class”) and just about everyone uses Winston Churchill’s famous quote about democracy.

“Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time,” Churchill said in the British House of Commons in 1947.

Of course, Churchill was right, both in his praise for and cynicism about democracy. After all, the British people ousted him and his party just months after winning World War II.

A look at last week’s results of ballot measures across the country shows our most direct forms of democracy — the initiative, in which voters petition for a ballot measure, and the referendum, in which the legislature refers a question to voters — produce results hard to reconcile with each other.

Voters in nine states struck back against the Supreme Court’s 2005 Kelo decision, which gave governments the power to take property from some people in order to give it to other people who would use it for “economic development.” Voters in Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire and South Carolina passed constitutional amendments blocking their states from that abuse of eminent domain powers. Arizona, Florida, Oregon, Nevada and North Dakota also passed similar legal safeguards for property owners.

So American voters can be relied on to block threats to liberty affecting them personally. When it comes to protecting someone else’s liberty, they’re not so reliable.

Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada and Ohio voters all passed minimum wage increases. Most who voted yes no doubt wanted to see the grocery cashier or gas station attendant make a little more. They didn’t bother to consider how their generosity with someone else’s money will result in fewer entry level jobs, higher prices and even worse customer service.

Voters in Arizona, Nevada and Ohio passed statewide smoking bans with very few, if any, exemptions, even for bars. It is rare to encounter someone who is actually worried about getting cancer from someone else’s cigarette. Most people just don’t want to be around it, and they’re happy to mandate their preference on everyone else, never mind the rights of peaceable assembly or private property.

Democracy is a great tool for keeping government off of people’s backs. But when it’s used by some to get into the pockets or the privacy of others, it’s no different than any other tyranny, no matter the margin of victory.

On second thought, I really hate loud kids in restaurants. How many of you will join me in voting to protect our basic right to kid-free dining?

Aaron Keith Harris writes about politics, the media, pop culture and music and is a regular contributor to National Review Online and Bluegrass Unlimited. He can be reached at aaronkeithharris@gmail.com.