TYRANNY IN THE HEADLINES: Senate Changes Rules, Invokes Tyranny Of Majority

The Constitutional duty to give advice and consent before confirming Presidential nominations was meant to be a check against Presidential power.  It was never meant to be a rubber stamp.  This is why, for more than 200 years now, the Senate’s rules allowed a nominee to be filibustered if the Senate could not raise a 60% majority to confirm that nominee.  Not too long ago, when the Republicans threatened to do exactly what the Democrats did today, the same Democrats argued like it would be yet another blow to the structure of our governmental system.  They were right then, but they were wrong today.  What they did today was just that: they struck another Progressive blow to the last vestiges of Constitutional constraints.  If we, the people, do not do something about this now, open tyranny is just around the corner.

Senate Passes ‘Nuclear Option’ Fundamentally Changing Filibuster Power — but There Were Three Democrats Who Voted to Stop It

Thursday’s vote marked a major shift in more than 200 years of Senate precedent that required a 60-vote majority to assure a final vote on most presidential nominees.

“They have proven willing to destroy a defining and historic aspect of the Senate in order to distract from their disastrous health care law and the harm it’s inflicting on the American people right now.”

“When Democrats were in the minority they argued strenuously for the very thing they now say we will have to do without, namely the right to extend a debate on lifetime appointments. In other words, they believe that one set of rules should apply to them and another set to everybody else,”

That last line is the very definition of tyranny.  This is about tearing down our system of government because one Party cannot get its way.  This is not the rule of law.  It is not republicanism.  This is pushing direct democracy, something our founders intentionally and wisely rejected.  They called it the tyranny of the majority.  They rejected it because it always results in trampling on the rights of minorities.  In this case, if nothing else, the Democrats are trampling on the rights and duty of the minority Party.  But then, direct democracy has always been the hallmark of the Statist…because the masses are motivated more by emotion and self-interest than duty and statesmanship, and therefore, are easily fooled into acting against their best interest.

Make no mistake here: the Republicans are not innocent in any of this.  Had they been doing their jobs correctly, the President would have been impeached by now – several times.  But, because the Republicans want the power Obama is amassing for the Executive for themselves some day, they are unwilling to do their duty to check the growth of tyranny in the White House.  Well, this vote today is what that sort of cowardice gets them.  The losers here are you and I and the rule of law.  There can be no doubt anymore: the survival of individual rights and liberty on the face of this planet has never been more imperiled.