Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry Message Board

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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry

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To: Cogito who wrote (79794)	10/9/2006 6:59:32 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) of 81568

In your zeal to disagree with me, you've veered into a very strange place. Are you suggesting that in the United States, the only reason we accept the government's authority is because we will be shot if we don't? No. But I would suggest that the US government's power to rule is based on force. In a Democracy, the government's ability to rule is based on the consent of the governed, by definition. Every type of government's ability to rule is based on force. In a democracy it is presumably force supported by the majority but you will never get universal consent, and sometimes you don't even get a majority (you might get a plurality, or you might get a strong special interest imposing its vision over a less active or powerful majority). Even when you get 99% you impose the decision by force over the other 1%. In any country with an active revolution, civil war, or insurgency the force will have to be a more open part of the equation, it will be applied more often, on a larger scale, and in more obvious ways, but that doesn't mean democratic governments are based on force.

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