“Governments are instituted among Men, and derive their just power from the consent of the governed.”
The idea did not originate in that document, but has been found in writings going back over eight hundred years and was repeated by thinkers and political philosophers who inspired the founders of our Republic.
If the phrase isn’t clear to you, looking it up is worth the time. But for clarity in this post, the idea is that just government is the collective will of the people, as administered by those appointed or elected to fill the roles of leadership; but they may only hold these positions so long as they maintain the consent of those who elected them.
In the US Republic, we use majority vote in elections to select those to speak and make law on our behalf.
We started this country on that principle, even going to make the first three words of our Constitution “We The People.” Of course “The People” was and is everyone, but at the founding they allowed only white men who owned property and had reached the age of majority (21 then) to select the leadership and representatives for that government. But with additional vision, those same founders added the Bill Of Rights to the Constitution. Not only did these state some specific rights and to whom rights belonged, but being amendments to the Constitution they established the method for changing the voices who chose the government leaders. Since that time, black men, and then all women, and then any citizen 18 or older, were added to the collection of voices who choose the government that makes laws for them.
What we have happening in the early 21st century United States is a movement from the political right to remove many of those voices from the conversation, and limit it to whomever agrees with their view of the country.
For them, We The People, holds a different meaning. To them, “The People” are those who share their Christian, patriarchal, nationalistic, and xenophobic view. The “Real Americans” is a term often heard in their comments. Real Americans need to take back the country, is a phrase (or paraphrase) spoken and written everywhere from Twitter to yard signs. It is repeated on Fox news along with other words and phrases, themselves just more metaphors that divide the country between real Americans and the “other.”
It is antithetical to the American ideal as well as the American Constitution.
Each Amendment becomes an equal part of the whole. So the 14th or 16th or 20th are just as valid as the 1-10. When I hear the term “originalist” in reference to the Constitution, it doesn’t take much digging to realize they are excluding many amendments from their thinking, as if their later addition invalidates them. “They weren’t part of the Original Constitution.” Never noticing that the same arguments invalidate the first ten as well.
And these same people will speak to the intent of the founders, as if by citing a paper here or there helps glean their desire to have a white, Christian ruled country, where the federal government held almost no authority over the powers of the states. And that the federal government was supposed to be, and is specified by the Constitution, to be of very limited authority.
Of course this is a myth perpetrated on the people by those who wish to have power for themselves. Those powerful individuals seek to subjugate the body of the population under their control. And they do this by convincing half the people that their problems are caused by the other half of the people who are stealing their natural birthright from them.
“The People” is all of us, and always has been. When the founders declared that, they knew that the people included women and slaves too. The difference is who gets to choose the government. Who gets to choose the government that represents us all. A government that we are all a part of. We The People, are those who are trying to form a more perfect union. It is all of us, and over time we have collectively added voices to that. Today you must be a citizen who has reached the age of majority (now 18) who has complied with the laws of the state to share in that decision making process. We surely don’t propose that those under eighteen years of age aren’t included in “The People”? Of course they are. But we don’t allow them to aid in the choice of government. As in the past we didn’t allow women or blacks to do so. We have changed the Constitution to fix original errors. But it is clear that The People, were always all of us.
A singular thing that happened in the founding of our country, and was clearly the intent of those who took the risks to make it happen, was that power was spread out to the masses. And that every effort must be made to limit the concentration of power to an individual, or a small group of pre-selected elites.
A Congress might be a small group according to the size of the country, but it is a group who holds their post because the masses have selected them for the purpose, and at periodic intervals they may reject them in favor of someone else. And the same holds for the Presidency.
On the political right the efforts are and have been to limit the effect of the voices who hold a different view of the country’s future. This they do by restricting the locations and methods for voting, by purging voter rolls in areas of population where people tend to vote against their preferred party, and most recently, by authorizing themselves to set aside the results of elections they don’t like. The last of these is most dangerous. It is literally concentrating the power into the hands of a few and taking it away from the masses. Strictly anti-Constitutional in intent and operation.
This must be fought against. And the best way to do that is to vote for the political left, even if you don’t support every position they espouse. Even if you like a balanced government. Because the days of two major parties debating reasonably and compromising to pass laws has all but vanished. There are two parties in the USA right now. Those who are for democracy and those who are for authoritarianism.
A person might see themselves as part of a group that is favored by the right. A white man, a Christian, etc., but their favored position only lasts until full control is achieved. Then other differences will be seen and discriminated against.
The Quote below is from Martin Niemöller, a German Lutherin minister.
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
It has been repeated often, and always to remind us that an attack against any one group, is really an attack against us all.
We are all The People. And the ideal set forth by the founders was that The People should hold the power. In this way they could never become subjugated by a master, be it a king, an oligarchy, or a theocracy.
And when you put the power into the hands of all of the people it must be accepted by all of the people that all of the voices are valid and need to be represented.
The idea that white, christian men should dominate the population’s voice because the first leaders were generally that, is not what the Constitution said nor meant.
We must collectively and in the majority hold consent to those who govern us. And in so doing, maintain power in whose hands it was meant to be:
We The People.