Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

There are myriad ways a nation could make decisions: proclamation by an authority called autocracy, a lottery, an algorithm, scripture-based theocracy and, of course, democracy. Democracy isn't necessarily the best or most efficient way of making decisions but if everyone is an island of liberty then everyone wants to have an opinion, whether they know anything about the issue or not. Hopefully, statistically, there is always enough information & integrity that a majority can come to the “best” decisions.

In the perfect democracy, everyone has complete knowledge, all vote, and the side with one vote more wins. But, of course, that's not even remotely possible, so at the beginning of our nation's history we substituted something that has the aspect of democracy but establishes a special class, the representative method. Not ideal but workable if the representatives are truly representative of the people they are supposedly representing. Unfortunately, these elite people can be captured by Special Interests. Combine that with pandering, apathy & voter suppression, and democracy delivers the same results as an autocracy.

Democracy also is a two-edged sword in its relationship to liberty: everybody gets to make their own decisions but they also pledge to abide by the decisions of the majority, which may actually decide to reduce the liberty of the individual. The Constitution limits how much liberty can be taken away but the Constitution paints Rights in broad strokes with lots of room for interpretation, and as the Supreme Court has demonstrated in decisions like Obamacare, the leeway can be substantial indeed. Knowing that people act in their own self-interest, the choice between envy & hope is the main support for liberty, so The American Dream, which offers a chance of a better life vs. a mediocre one, is all that keeps a democratic nation from slipping into socialism.