Though examples are depressingly unnecessary, here are two of my favorites
over the years. In 1987, 45 percent of adult respondents to one survey
answered that the phrase "from each according to his ability, to each
according to his needs" was in the Constitution (in fact, it's a quote from
Karl Marx). Then, in 1991, an American Bar Association study reported that a
third of Americans did not know what the Bill of Rights was.
That the public mood is a poor compass for guiding the ship of state is an
old lament. Here are two reasons why.
The first has to do with the laziness, spinelessness and vanity of political
elites. Citing polls as proof you're on the right side of an argument is
often a symptom of intellectual cowardice. If the crowd says two plus two
equals seven, that's no reason to invoke the authority of the crowd. But
pundits and pols know that if they align themselves with the latest Gallup
findings, they don't have to defend their position on the merits because
"the people" are always right. Such is the seductiveness of populism. It
means never being wrong. "The people of Nebraska are for free silver, and I
am for free silver," proclaimed William Jennings Bryan. "I will look up the
arguments later."
Which brings us to ideology. The days when politicians would actually defend
small-r republicanism are gone. The answer to every problem in our democracy
seems to be more democracy, as if any alternative spells more tyranny.
Indeed, once more the "forces of progress" are trying to destroy the
Electoral College in the name of democracy. Their beachhead is Maryland,
which was the first to approve an interstate compact promising its electors
to whichever presidential candidate wins the national popular vote.
If these progressives have their way, we'll soon see candidates ignoring
small states and rural areas entirely because democracy means going where
the votes are. The old notion that this is a republic in which minority
communities have a say will suffer perhaps the final, fatal blow.
But that's OK, because 70 percent of Americans say they're for getting rid
of the Electoral College. And Lord knows, they must be right.