I received this email. Very interesting:
Subject: FW: Civics Lesson: Why the US is a republic and not a pure
democracy
To the editor:
Thank you, Al Gore. As a high school history teacher, I owe you a debt
of gratitude. You see, the way you have conducted your campaigns (the
election campaign and the ballot-manipulation campaign) has provided me
with endless opportunities to show my students the beauty of our
Constitution and the wisdom of our founding fathers.
Take the electoral college system. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Al.
For
six years, I have done my best to explain the logic and benefits of the
system
hammered out by Mr. Madison and a few of his cronies. High school
students just don't get why they chose such a complicated process.
Why not simply go by popular vote? I'd patiently explain that the
electoral system was designed to allow the people to speak through their
states. The tricky part was making my students understand why that was
especially beneficial to small states like ours. I knew that,
proportionally, Rhode Islanders have more clout in the presidential
election
under this
system, but I wasn't able to illustrate it dramatically until this year.
When I showed my students the US map, colored red for Governor Bush and
blue for you, they finally got it. Anyone can clearly see that the popular
vote of only a handful of major cities is almost equal to that of the
entire
rest of the US. Thank God the founding fathers had the wisdom
and insight to provide this protection to those of us in small states or
sparsely settled areas. The look of shock on my pupils' faces when they
realized that public policy could easily be dictated by a handful of the
largest and most liberal population centers made me realize that I had
them hooked. They could begin to see why Senator-elect Hillary Clinton,
in one of her first post-election speeches, promised to fight to abolish
the electoral college.
This was too good an opportunity to pass up. Pulling out my well-worn
copy of The Federalist Papers, I seized the advantage and began to read
from No. 68. "It was also peculiarly desirable to afford as little
opportunity as possible to tumult and disorder. Nothing was more to be
desired than
that every practicable obstacle should be opposed to cabal, intrigue and
corruption," Alexander Hamilton wrote in defense of the electoral
college system. As I told my students, you can insert the phrase "in the
year
2000 in Florida" throughout this letter and be amazed at Hamilton's gif of
prophecy.
The spectacle we are now witnessing in your campaign to overturn the
election in Florida, Al, is the very thing that our Founding Fathers
most feared. Although they couldn't anticipate the advent of television,
they
were familiar with the harm that an inflamed and largely uninformed
populace could wreak. What a tremendous lesson you have provided the
youth of our country. No longer are Hamilton, Madison et al. dead white
men," incapable of teaching us anything. Rather, they reach out to us
through the ages, warning us of "these most deadly adversaries of
republican government."
This reminds me of another teaching opportunity you have afforded me.
In the past few weeks, you have lectured about your desire to uphold our
"democracy," but surely you realize that our government is not a
democracy, but a republic. Don't worry about it; most of my 10th graders
didn't know the difference either until they read The Federalist Paper
No.10.
In it, James Madison brilliantly outlines the advantages that republics
have over democracies, which he deems "spectacles of turbulence and
contention." The founding fathers anticipated the drawbacks to a
democracy and instead created a republic because "the public voice
pronounced by the representatives of the people will be more consonant
to the public good than if pronounced by the people themselves convened
for
the purpose."T hose "spontaneous" demonstrations led and orchestrated by
the
Reverend Jesse Jackson in Florida are proof of the validity of the
founders'
concerns.
Still, I must thank you, Al, for the boon you have been to my teaching
this year. By continuing to stir up passions in Florida, by dragging out
the
inevitable, and by convincing segments of the population that they have
been
wronged at the hands of other groups, you have proved the founders'
concerns
justified. No need for me to paint a hypothetical picture of the dangers
of
mob
rule; my students can see examples of it on the nightly news.
Finally, Al, you've helped me to get across the most salient aspect of
any civics lesson -- that a republic is only possible where the people are
virtuous. All these years I have lectured, with minimal success, on the
fragility
of our system of government, stressing the need for wisdom, honor and
self-sacrifice among our nation's citizens and leaders. How easy you have
made it for
me to show my students the dangers of the politics of selfishness,
disingenuousness and division. During your election campaign you tried,
with some success, to disassociate yourself from your predecessor, who
so blatantly tarnished our nation's highest office and was the
poster-child for self-absorption.
Since election day, however, you have shown yourself
to be even more dangerous: a demagogue. Your win-at-all-costs attitude
has resulted in a nation that is deeply divided; violence simmers beneath
the surface. My students, indeed all Americans, are contemplating the
consequences of electing a man who has admitted he would do anything
to win. No matter what happens as result of this election, Al, your
legacy is assured. We will learn the lessons you have taught us.
Carol B. Smith Cranston
Ms. (Boissoneau) Smith is a member of the Tiverton High School Class of
1973.
?Sakonnet Times 2000 Reader Opinions |
