WE CAN'T ALL GET ALONG

We can't all get along
By Mike Rosen, Rocky Mountain News
mikerosen@850koa.com

Originally published 12:05 a.m., August 15, 2008
Updated 01:43 a.m., August 15, 2008
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/aug/15/rosen-we-the-people/

'We the people of the United States in Order to form a more perfect Union . . . do ordain and establish this Constitution."

When those words, the Preamble to the Constitution, were crafted, the context was to introduce a document prescribing the foundation, organization and general rules of a new system of government based on a bottom-up model of governance.

Power would derive from the people, not from the "divine right" of a king or from the condescending benevolence or superior wisdom of some ruling elite. Fortifying that document was the Bill of Rights, reinforcing the clear understanding that fundamental rights belonged naturally to individuals and were beyond the whims of government.

Respects and protects individual rights and prerogatives

The phrase "We the people," it should be understood, does not imply that the United States is a commune, a homogeneous collective of like-minded people who all agree on issues of public policy. When Democrats talk of their party as "the party of the people," they tend to apply that in just such a collective - or socialist - sense. As a Republican, I prefer to regard my party as "the party of the person" - the party that better respects and protects individual rights and prerogatives.

That doesn't mean I'm an anarchist or selfish or have no sense of community. I like to think I'm a good neighbor and a good citizen. But I also believe that voluntary, cooperative associations are more desirable and productive than mandatory ones. There have been times when Americans have forged a consensus on vital matters. But even during the American Revolution and World War II there were dissenters, to say nothing of the Civil War. Our motto, E pluribus unum - "Out of many, one" - is an ideal, not an absolute. I have no illusion that people in this or any other nation are of one mind.

"We the people" – a meaningless cliche.

That wonderful, inspirational expression "We the people" has become, all too often, a meaningless cliche. It's repeatedly used by writers of letters to the editor or populist talk-show hosts - both liberal and conservative - who sanctimoniously utter platitudes like: "We must demand that those in our government follow the will of the people, since they work for us."

But which people? The people who listen to left-wing Air America or agree with liberal editorials in The New York Times are not the same people who support the conservative opinions of Rush Limbaugh or agree with free market editorials in The Wall Street Journal.

And politicians don't represent some abstract, unanimous "us."

In the real world of politics, they tend to favor the agendas of the majority of voters and interest groups that put them in office. It's understandable that the minority of voters who supported a losing candidate feel poorly represented, but that's the way elections work. Boulder's "ins" are the "outs" in Colorado Springs.

It's not that "We the people" can't agree on anything, but it's certainly true that we won't agree on everything. Along with some areas of common ground, there are also irreconcilable differences between hawks and doves, seniors and juniors, protectionists and free traders, pro-life and pro-choice, unions and businesses, big government and small, public and private, gays and straights, men and women, blacks and whites, urban and rural, nannyists and rugged individualists, rednecks and hippies, etc.

On most issues, grand and petty, and on the very definition of the "common good," there is no monolithic "we." There's you and me and them. Always has been, always will be.

James Madison spoke of an offsetting multiplicity of factions as preferable to the inordinate influence of a few dominant interests. Minor political parties can be single-minded, purist and uncompromising. That's why they're minor parties with small followings.

Major parties are the clearinghouses of multiple factions, harboring their own internal disagreements while coming together to form a generally like-minded coalition. As Clinton Rossiter observed, "No America without democracy, no democracy without politics, no politics without parties." And, I'd add, no freedom without parties that disagree.

And that, Rodney King, is why we can't all get along.

Mike Rosen's radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850 KOA. He can be reached by e-mail at mikerosen@850koa.com