Al Franken ran against Norm Coleman for Senator from Minnesota.
Three million votes were cast. Franken won by about 300 votes.
That is to say, for every 5000 votes Coleman received, Franken
received 5001. So now Al Franken is a United States Senator.
Democracy--the idea that a majority is enough to determine
what will be the case for everybody--is an article of faith.
There is nothing in the entire universe that suggests that when
10,001 people vote, that what a simple majority want will be best.
But that is our agreement. (And in this case, of course, it is!
See? Wait until next time! Every vote counts! All that.)
It wasn't easy, at the end of World War II, to convince the
Japanese that they should adopt democratic governance.
"Why," they asked, "should 49 of us have to do what only 51
people want to do?" Right! It is not written in the stars.
It is purely and simply an agreement: an article of faith
that things will work out for the best if we do it that way.
Now Al Franken is one of our Senators. Actually, our form
of government is not a democracy at that level: it is a republic.
We don't vote individually at that level. We have representatives,
but the elected representatives pretend to have a democracy.
As it happens, in a republic, we are nervous about democracy.
We divide the power, giving some to an Executive President,
some to a Judiciary, and some to our legislators, whom we
divide into two competing bodies: a Senate, and a House
of Representatives. That last division was deliberate:
Senators have longer terms, are more entrenched, and are
supposed to act as a kind of brake on the more immediately
democratic Representatives, who just might be more precipitious.
In fact, Senators themselves do not entirely trust democracy.
They have agreed that sometimes a bare majority is not enough;
that a 60% margin should be required; that is to say, that if 40%
do not agree, it cannot be done. And, as you know very well,
it cannot be done. Not very often. And maybe that is the point.
Consider what it is like to be part of a genuine minority.
Most of us have not really taken that seriously. Real majorities
find it easy to make slaves of minorities. Majorities often
propose, often in fact enact, sanctions against minorities.
Majorities stone minorities, pass laws to deny them rights,
suggest that minority populations be sent back to Mexico,
or Somalia. Majorities do not suggest that people be sent
back to Ireland or England or Sweden because they perceive
themselves to be part of the majority.
Well, be honest! Sometimes we elect boneheads
to represent us, and since their constituency consists
of a bare majority of the bonehead electorate, they act
like boneheads, enact bonehead legislation, set up
concentration camps for Japanese citizens, pretend that
some people deserve to be super-rich, or that health care
is too expensive for poor people. We allow males to
write laws that govern what females may or may not do.
Personally, I am appalled that 40% of the Senate
can block a health care bill. Personally, I am appalled
at what damnable foolishness a bare majority of
legislators sometimes do, so sometimes I think two-thirds
or three-quarters should be required.
You see, I am one of the 300 people who put Al Franken
into office. That is just fine! But I am also one of the
minority that does not think that we ever were intended,
or ought, to be a Christian nation, just allowing the rational
non-religious, or the Jews, or Muslims, or Sikhs, or Shintoists,
or Sunday-morning-golfers to stay here if they keep
their heads down and their mouths shut.
We muddle along, talking democracy, sometimes denying it,
sometimes deliberately handicapping it to save ourselves
from ourselves. And that makes it very hard to get work done.
Three million votes were cast. Franken won by about 300 votes.
That is to say, for every 5000 votes Coleman received, Franken
received 5001. So now Al Franken is a United States Senator.
Democracy--the idea that a majority is enough to determine
what will be the case for everybody--is an article of faith.
There is nothing in the entire universe that suggests that when
10,001 people vote, that what a simple majority want will be best.
But that is our agreement. (And in this case, of course, it is!
See? Wait until next time! Every vote counts! All that.)
It wasn't easy, at the end of World War II, to convince the
Japanese that they should adopt democratic governance.
"Why," they asked, "should 49 of us have to do what only 51
people want to do?" Right! It is not written in the stars.
It is purely and simply an agreement: an article of faith
that things will work out for the best if we do it that way.
Now Al Franken is one of our Senators. Actually, our form
of government is not a democracy at that level: it is a republic.
We don't vote individually at that level. We have representatives,
but the elected representatives pretend to have a democracy.
As it happens, in a republic, we are nervous about democracy.
We divide the power, giving some to an Executive President,
some to a Judiciary, and some to our legislators, whom we
divide into two competing bodies: a Senate, and a House
of Representatives. That last division was deliberate:
Senators have longer terms, are more entrenched, and are
supposed to act as a kind of brake on the more immediately
democratic Representatives, who just might be more precipitious.
In fact, Senators themselves do not entirely trust democracy.
They have agreed that sometimes a bare majority is not enough;
that a 60% margin should be required; that is to say, that if 40%
do not agree, it cannot be done. And, as you know very well,
it cannot be done. Not very often. And maybe that is the point.
Consider what it is like to be part of a genuine minority.
Most of us have not really taken that seriously. Real majorities
find it easy to make slaves of minorities. Majorities often
propose, often in fact enact, sanctions against minorities.
Majorities stone minorities, pass laws to deny them rights,
suggest that minority populations be sent back to Mexico,
or Somalia. Majorities do not suggest that people be sent
back to Ireland or England or Sweden because they perceive
themselves to be part of the majority.
Well, be honest! Sometimes we elect boneheads
to represent us, and since their constituency consists
of a bare majority of the bonehead electorate, they act
like boneheads, enact bonehead legislation, set up
concentration camps for Japanese citizens, pretend that
some people deserve to be super-rich, or that health care
is too expensive for poor people. We allow males to
write laws that govern what females may or may not do.
Personally, I am appalled that 40% of the Senate
can block a health care bill. Personally, I am appalled
at what damnable foolishness a bare majority of
legislators sometimes do, so sometimes I think two-thirds
or three-quarters should be required.
You see, I am one of the 300 people who put Al Franken
into office. That is just fine! But I am also one of the
minority that does not think that we ever were intended,
or ought, to be a Christian nation, just allowing the rational
non-religious, or the Jews, or Muslims, or Sikhs, or Shintoists,
or Sunday-morning-golfers to stay here if they keep
their heads down and their mouths shut.
We muddle along, talking democracy, sometimes denying it,
sometimes deliberately handicapping it to save ourselves
from ourselves. And that makes it very hard to get work done.
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