David Souter, Retired US Supreme Court Justice, in a speech in New Hampshire in 2012 said the following:
“I don’t worry about our losing republican government in the United State because I’m afraid of a foreign invasion. I don’t worry about it because I think there is going to be a coup by the military as has happened in some of the other places. What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed, people will not know who is responsible. And when the problems get bad enough, as they might do, for example with another serious terrorist attack, as they might do with another financial melt down, some one person will come forward, ‘Give me total power and I will solve this problem.’…..
“If we know who is responsible, I have enough faith in the American people to demand performance from those responsible. If we don’t know, we will stay away from the polls. We will not demand it. And the day will come when somebody will come forward and we and the government will in effect say, ‘Take the ball and run with it. Do what you have to do.’
“That is the way democracy dies. And if something is not done to improve the level of civic knowledge, that is what you should worry about at night.”
In November, 2016 Donald Trump won the Presidency in a close, divided election In the polling in the Electoral College, it was the closest of the last three elections and his opponent, Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by 2,862,000 votes, more than five times the margin of Vice President Gore in the 2000 election, the last time there was a divided result with one candidate winning the Electoral College vote and the other candidate winning the national popular vote.
On Friday, January 27, 2017, seven days after the inauguration of President Trump, by executive order, he closed the nation’s borders to refugees from around the world, ordering that families fleeing the slaughter in Syria be indefinitely blocked from entering the United States and temporarily suspending immigration from several predominantly Muslim countries. There followed protests all over the the United States:
“Protests against Trumps immigration plan rolling in more than 30 cities.”
“Protestors marched, chanted and waived signs across the nation Sunday as angry immigrant advocates pressed their demand for an end to President Trump’s executive order banning citizens of 7 Muslim majority countries from entering the US. Rallies underway in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Washington Los Angeles and other cities drew thousands, part of a groundswell of furry that erupted at airports across the nation Saturday and showed no signs of abating.”
The protests continued until a Federal District Court judge in Seattle, a few days later, granted a temporary restraining order sought by the State of Washington, temporarily halting the implementation of the executive order. This decision was unanimously by a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals stating that the administration failed to show that the order met constitutional requirements.
Our country’s founders might have had some thoughts on this.
“…great innovations should never be forced on slender majorities.”
– Thomas Jefferson, 1808
“In Republics, the great danger is that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the Minority.” James Madison, 1801
“All too will bear in mind this sacred principle that the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority possesses their equal rights, which equal laws must protect and to violate would be oppression.”Thomas Jefferson, 1801
Of course in the current case, the minority, and the eyes of the majority, is the one engaging in oppression.
“It is of great importance in a republic, not only to guard the society against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of the society against the other part.” James Madison, 1788
“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privilege if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.” – George Washington, 1783
“….a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask for zeal for the rights of the people then under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the later, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of the republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people, commencing demagogues and ending tyrants.” – Alexander Hamilton, 1787
John Jay