And to the Republic….

Each time I heard Donald Trump threaten violence in the event he lost the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, I thought of James Madison.

In imagining the optimal form of government for our nation, our Founding Fathers listened to the ancients. From Greece and Rome they learned that the best form of government results in a harmonious diversity characterized by friendship, for friendship “best preserves them against revolutions.” Moreover, the most able among us should govern because leading a people towards harmonious diversity requires wisdom (Arist Pol 1262b.5–7).

The ancients cautioned, however, that in entrusting the wisest and most able to lead, justice is a primary concern. If we take seriously that all are created equal, then justice requires that “everyone be ruled as well as rule” (Arist Pol 1287a.9–20).

The founders recognized that direct democracy is not the most enduring form of a government in which all are equally bound by a law authorized by all. Influenced by Rome’s republic more than the direct democracy of Athens, they chose to “guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government” (US Constitution, Art. 4 Sec. 4 Par. 1).

In arguing for passage of the US Constitution in the Federalist Papers, Madison worried that “tyranny” and “ambitious intrigues” would ensue if the Founding Fathers chose direct democracy (№48). He argued for a “representative republic” rather than a direct democracy because, in place of the multitudes, it substitutes a great diversity of “representatives whose enlightened views and virtuous sentiments render them superior to local prejudices and schemes of injustice,” provide greater security against oppression by a majority, and provide greater resistance to “the secret wishes of an unjust and interested majority” (№10).

According to Madison, the founders envisioned “the delegation of the government… to a small number of citizens by the rest” (№10).

Today, why require a majority of delegates rather than rely on the popular vote? Following Madison, the hope is to “refine and enlarge the public views, by passing them through the medium of a chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interest of their country, and whose patriotism and love of justice will be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations” (№10).

The fact that we are equal under both God and the law does not mean that we are equal in the gifts and graces must conducive to the leadership of our community and nation. Our differences matter. Though the means by which each state chooses delegates may be ripe for reform, our form of government is not ‘rigged’ but rightly delegates decisions to those we judge best equipped to deliberate on our behalf.

We govern through delegates rather than the popular vote to protect ourselves from tyranny of the majority and the prejudices and passions of “the madding crowds.”

Turns out the Founding Fathers knew we’d have years like 2016.

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