The populace is the problem

The front page of the Sept. 2, 1999 Stockton Record carried a
revealing story. It reported the results of a recent poll showing that
by a two-to-one ratio, the Californians polled believe that the need for
gun control supersedes the right to keep and bear arms. Remarkably,
while over 70 percent of the Democrats supported the majority opinion,
the Republicans polled were almost evenly split.

What is most revealing about this poll is not that more and more
Americans are accepting the (ir)rationale of gun control. That fact is
bad enough. The most disturbing fact is that when given a choice between
supporting the United States Constitution and supporting a subversion of
the United States Constitution, more and more are choosing the latter.
The Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights guarantees the right to keep
and bear arms, and the poll cited earlier employed this very language in
posing the question. In other words, by a two-to-one ratio, the
Californians polled prefer to overturn a chief plank of the Bill of
Rights.

Likewise, during the Clinton impeachment hearings, certain
conservatives could be heard saying, "I know that the poll numbers
indicate that most Americans don't want the president impeached; but the
poll questions are misleading, or the right people have not been polled;
but if the questions were properly framed, and if a representative
segment of true Americans were polled, we would find out that they
support impeachment." This is a sad and dangerous delusion. True enough,
poll questions and data can be skewed one way or the other. The fact,
however, that there was not sufficient broad-based outrage at the
president's sins and crimes lends credence to the conviction that the
majority of Americans were not in favor of the president's impeachment.

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Conservative Populism?

A large sector of theological and political conservatism in this
country is populist. In other words, it claims to reflect and defend the
views of the majority of "hard working, middle-class Americans." Two or
three decades ago this may have been the case (though even this
assumption is dubious), but today it is certain that populism does not
favor conservatism. "We stand for the people," some conservative
preachers and politicians declare in trumpet tones; "Let the people
decide." Well, when
"the people" decide, they sometimes decide that the Bill of Rights is
worthless, and that the chief executive of the nation can commit crimes
with impunity.

The Majoritarian Error

Insightful statesmen who support democracy in a general sense
recognize its dangers and limitations. The Founding Fathers were not
committed to democracy, but to republicanism; and in the decade after
the American War for Independence, many of them framed the Constitution
to protect against
the will of majorities. This, after all, is one main objective of
constitutions: they are created not merely to limit the executive and
legislature, but also to limit the fickle whims of majority sentiment.
Democracies are fickle, and politicians who claim to speak in the name
of "the people" are usually tyrants -- either inside the closet or out.
The United States Constitution, for this reason, is intentionally hard
to change -- and let us be thankful for this fact, for the majority of
Californians with the assistance of their misguided comrades in the
other states may otherwise be easily persuaded to abolish the Second
Amendment, and probably much else besides.

Not Populism, But Truth

We are called to defend not populism, but the truth. For several
decades, conservatives have inveighed against the "liberal elite"; and
this criticism has usually been right on target. But a frequent
inference from this accurate charge is far from on target: that if we
just get rid of the liberal elite and allow "the people" to get their
way, we will get things back on the right track. This is delusional. It
is quite true, as alert conservatives note, that the elite influences
the rest of the society in a trickle-down effect. The elite in modern
America includes Hollywood, the universities, Washington politicians,
and the Eastern Establishment. But the fact is that a majority (perhaps
even a large majority) of today's Americans support most of the tenets
of the elite: the right to abortion, tolerance of marital infidelity and
homosexuality, restrictions on gun ownership, a narcissistic attitude
towards life, a socialistic view of the civil government, and so forth.
In other words, the liberal elites have won over the populace.

In 1950, there was probably a significant contrast between the
spiritual and moral views of the liberal elite, and those of the rest of
the country. In 2000, a liberal elite and a liberal populism are one.