Every Election Day people voice a seemingly patriotic idea that our greatest right as Americans is our “right to vote”.
If voting is truly our greatest right one must consider the implication. Our other rights—freedom of speech, freedom of property, and even our freedom to exist as rational human beings—are dependent on the whims of the masses and their elected leaders. Our country on this view is not a society based on freedom and our individual rights, but rather on unlimited majority rule.
Examples of the consequences of unlimited majority can be found throughout history: In 1932 when the people of Germany democratically elected Adolph Hitler to bring the country on its knees; Modern day India where the democratically elected officials forgave farmers debts and provided free electricity to them; or Ancient Athens where the masses exercising their “greatest right” elected to kill Socrates for voicing unpopular ideas.
History has shown what the masses are capable of doing, yet people claim that as American’s our greatest right is our “freedom to vote”? Does dare anyone claim that America is fundamentally similar to these regimes, and that is acceptable to slaughter six million Jews or kill unpopular philosophers, so long as it is done by a popular vote?
Contrary to popular belief, America was not founded as a “democracy”, but rather a republic where government is bound by a written constitution to protect individual rights. “Democracy” dosen’t mean holding public elections for government officials; it means a system in which the minority are held to the decisions of the majority, and in which an individual as no right. James Madison in the Federalist Papers wrote, “there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention [and] have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property.”
So then what is the right to vote? The right to vote is the belief that a person is a rational independent being, who is responsible for this own life and should therefore freely choose a person to represent him in the government of his country. That independence is violated if a majority of the voters are allowed to do whatever they wish to an individual or group of persons. The right to vote is not a legal sanction for the majority to deprive individuals of their freedom. Rather, because a free society requires a certain type of government—to protect that very freedom—the right to vote is means of electing officials who will protect the right of every individual citizen.
What makes America great is not that is has elections—even Iraq had elections—rather that its elections take place to protect individual rights. From our Declaration of Independence which declare the “unalienable rights” of every individual to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to the Constitution which protects freedom of speech, religion, and property—the respect for the individual—is what makes America great.
Unfortunately, with the passing of every election, more and more Americans view elections as a means of getting favors or handouts from government at the cost of other Americans rather then and opportunity to protect the freedom that make America great. Every politician we elect promises to violate the rights of some Americans to benefit some other Americans. They promise subsidizes for farmers—by forcing non-farmers to pay them; they promise liberty for the world—by forcing Americans to pay for it; they promise prescription drugs for the elderly—by forcing the young to pay for them; they promise housing for the homeless—by forcing the non-homeless to pay for them; they promise a better life to the unproductive poor—by forcing the productive rich to pay for them. They promise liberty by violating liberty.
Thus this Election Day we must realize that neither Bush nor Kerry are ideal champions of liberty, yet we must vote for the one which will protect our liberty to the greatest extent. The choice cannot be made for you, yet the answer is self-evident. The more democratic we become—the more we let the majority suck the blood of the minority—we violate the fundamental root of greatness in America: freedom.