W. Stands for Wrongful -- II

[Leo Casey]

It was not my words, but the phrasing of an article I
forwarded. However, I would have no problem defending
it. Democratic governance is not an all or nothing
proposition: it is clearly a spectrum, in which we can
talk intelligibly about more democratic and less
democratic systems. For example, for a whole host of
reasons which I will be happy to explicate if you want
to discuss them, I think that Canada and the UK are
more democratic than the US. "One person, one vote"
does make a significant difference: look at South
Africa. It is not the totality of democratic
governance, by any stretch of the imagination, but it
is a great deal more democratic than the alternative.

 
The point, as I see it, is to expand the terrain of
democracy, to make government more democratic. What is
appalling about the "Scalia doctrine" that there is no
right to suffrage is that it attacks directly what was
a common assumption of American political life for
decades -- certainly since the Voting Rights Act, if
not back unto the 17th Amendment establishing direct
election for senators. It is hard to imagine a more
radical "turning back of the clock." To ignore that
because we have not yet arrived at the New Jerusalem
of democratic government is, IMHO, a tragic error.


> > Leo Casey:
> > No wonder W. is in hiding: He's taking power by
> > virtue
> > of votes not counted, because of the Electoral
> > College's bias against one-person, one-vote, and
> > now
> > on the wings of a ringing assault on popular
> > rule.

  
> Gordon Fitch responded: 
> So if, say, we had a direct popular vote for
> president 
> in a community whose politics and media were
> dominated by
> associations of rich, powerful people, and where
> the needs,
> desires and will of the great majority of the
> population were
> ignored, this would be "one person, one vote"?

 
Leo Casey
United Federation of Teachers
260 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)

Power concedes nothing without a demand.
It never has, and it never will.
If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate
agitation are men who want crops without plowing the
ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning.
They want the ocean without the awful roar of its
waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --

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