Kerby Anderson

During the confirmation hearings for Judge Brett Kavanaugh we saw lots of protesters screaming outside the hearing room. Senator Dick Durbin declared that, “What we heard is the noise of democracy.” Actually, what we heard was a noise of a mob. And this is exactly what the Founders of this country feared.

First, we need to remind our citizens that we are a republic and not a democracy. We elect representatives to federal, state, and local governments to consider legislation that affects our lives. This was the intentional plan put forth at the Constitutional Convention.

And that brings us to the second point. The framers of the Constitution did not want a democracy. They feared it would be a mobocracy. James Madison defined a democracy as “a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.” He went on to explain that, “Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention.”

Why was he, and other framers, so critical of democracies? All you have to do is read Federalist Paper #10 to see that Madison was concerned with how factions could tear a country apart. Wisdom, prudence, and good judgment quickly go out the window when a mob of angry people begins to push for a particular law or policy. The framers established checks and balances to prevent a “vigilante spirit” that would hastily push forward a wrong-headed policy.

That is why it takes so long to pass legislation in America. The framers wanted to provide amply time for reflection and consideration. It was an attempt to tamp down the “noise of a mob” and carefully craft legislation that would serve all the people rather than just a few people trying to force their will on the rest of us.

What we saw this month was not the “noise of democracy” but the noise of a mob intent on trying to bully Congress and subvert the republican form of government given to us by the founders.