Understanding The Will of The People

When people like FBI Strzok and his fellow anti-Trump conspirators think that it is their job to obviate the will of the people, it shows their lack of understanding of our democracy.

To recap:  Peter Strzok is the highly placed FBI agent who was a key player in both the Clinton investigation and Mueller’s investigation of alleged collusion between Trump and Russia until he was removed after emails surfaced between him and his then mistress and fellow FBI anti-Trumper.  Those emails suggested not only his bias in favor of Clinton and against Trump in his use of the now debunked dossier against Trump, but also emails suggesting his desire to undermine and even unseat a Trump presidency.  His emails indicate that he believed that “we can’t afford to leave this in we the people’s hands.”  This from a well-placed member of the intelligence community who is sworn to protect, not subvert our democracy.

This is truly frightening. This sort of thinking, that one knows better than the full voting public what the outcome of an election should be, is a danger to our democracy.  This is the thinking that allows a dictator to “win” by unanimous vote following a show election.  This is the thinking that denies power to the people and places it in the hands of a select few, a group whose interests may or may not include the best interests of the people.  To ignore the implications of this thinking is to ignore the fragility of our democratic Republic and sow the seeds of its demise.

Now, I will be the first to admit that there are times when I wonder how the voting public can be so uninformed, how they can fail to think or to understand the full implications of a particular policy decision. I have often over many years wondered how the people could possibly have elected this or that candidate.   And when it looks completely hopeless I have momentarily thought that perhaps we would be better with a benevolent dictator.  But no, we would not!

My parents’ generation were fond of saying that the “country is going to hell in a handbasket.”  Generations before them had similar phrases.  Yet here we are.  Somehow, at the darkest moments the people come through, they do what is right and good, and the country continues and moves forward.  Sometimes what we thought was a good choice was not, or what we thought was a bad choice turns out in the end to be quite good.  We learn, and we grow.  And that is the beauty of our form of democracy. 

We are not subservient to the mind or the will or the limitations or the whims of a dictator or other elite class who believes that they know what is best for all.  We are not subservient because we are, through our elected representatives, our own government.  We have the freedom to select and direct our government, rather than submissively complying with an authoritarian regime.

Those who would negate our democratic process to implant their views, policies, and candidates are not working for the good of the country.  Their actions would destroy it and replace it with an oppressive regime, for any dictatorship, even a seemingly benevolent one, reflects a disdain for the people and their voice.  

In this country we the people speak, and we are governed according to our own voice.   Our voice is not unanimous and those whose voices were not as loud must understand that when another view prevails their voice continues to have the opportunity to be heard.  They must have patience, and if their views are truly better, the people will eventually hear and recognize that. But speaking and being heard in a democracy does not include overthrowing the will of the people in order to immediately foist one’s own views upon them.

Since Donald Trump became the Republican candidate for president, the Democrats, their supporters, and other anti-Trumpers have been trying to insert their will for that of the people.  Hence, we had the apparent plots to destroy his candidacy.  One might chalk that up to hardball campaigning, but once Mr. Trump became President Trump, elected by the will of the people according to our Constitution, it was everyone’s duty as good citizens to support that president and in so doing to support the will of the people.  Yet, what many have done since the first day of his presidency is try to invalidate and delegitimize that presidency.  Shame on the Democrats for thinking that their will should supplant that of the people. 

Sadly, it seems that the Democrats have forgotten that the people are the government and that the government only exists through the will of the people.  We see this in their words about the tax bill that just passed – things like the bill is “stealing from the government” or that the people are “looting the federal treasury.”  Do they not understand that the government is the people, that its money came from those very people who they claim are stealing it? Any money that the government has, the funding of its services and programs, all comes from the people.  If the people choose to fund fewer government bureaucracies, then they are simply retaining their own funds, they are not stealing or looting their own treasury.  Yet, the Democrats seem to believe that the people are subservient to their own government, a government which the Democrats seem to believe only they and their ideas should control.

One who actually understands our democracy does not go about conspiring to reverse the will of the people.   To do so is horribly arrogant in its complete disrespect for the people and the government that they elect.  If we let it, our democracy works.  Yes, sometimes it makes mistakes, but it is also able to correct itself and to move forward.  A true American supports our democracy rather than trying to subvert it, regardless of who is currently in office.  

The Democrats need to accept the will of the people, understand that there may actually be some good in it, and that we the people may very well know what we are doing.  In the words of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger: “You can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you just might find you get what you need!”