Mob Rule

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

Thomas Jefferson



Jefferson here was talking about the difference between a Republic and a simple Democracy. Under a simple Democracy a tyrant can rule by swaying 51% of the vote. The vocal 49%minority loses it's representation.

Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is the perfect example a dictatorial style simple democracy. Ply the underclass with trinkets and beads, redistribute scant welfare pesos just enough to slightly better their life, in order to claim the support of the 51%. Make them dependent on government through welfare.

Just as Chavez, just as Obama.

The " 51% majority rule " cry we heard in the Senate over ObamaCare recently marked the beginning of Obama's blatant abuse of power. Here the 51% vote Nuclear Option was rationalized as a legitimate maneuver. It wasn't,in the manner the Obamaists misconstrued it. Reconciliation was never intended for legislative purposes as they misstated the Rules of the Senate.

Jefferson and the founders in setting up the Republican form of government recognized the need for "Checks and Balances" all 3 Branches of the Government were given powers to offset one over the other. Even within each Branch there are offsets to blind power of a simple majority of 51% ruling the other 49%. This is why the Senate had the 2/3 rds vote rule. The Founders wanted the minority view to be represented and for an overpowering majority to be compelled to COMPROMISE with an opposing view unless 67% or more of the representatives agreed.

The Democrats under Wilson beginning in 1917 have continously eroded this vital aspect of our government even to this day. There is talk amongst them to further change the Rules of the Senate to a simple 51 votes for anything. It is they who would move us away a Republican form of government, to that of a simple 51% mob rule Democracy.

Does any of this sound like Obama to you? Would you say from this Usurper Obama and his regime is far closer to Chavez the Venezuelan Banana Republic dictator, than Jefferson one of our Founders and original Americans?

Did you sign up to live in America or Venezuela?


Pertinent Background Information regarding the Rules of the Senate

A similar procedure was adopted in the United States of America in response to the actions of isolationist senators who attempted to talk out, or filibuster, a bill to arm U.S. merchant ships. President Woodrow Wilson urged the Senate to change its rules to thwart what he called a "little group of willful men", to which the Senate responded by introducing cloture in the form of Rule 22 on March 8, 1917.[1] Cloture was invoked for the first time on November 15, 1919,[2] during the 66th Congress, to end filibuster on the Treaty of Versailles.[3]

The cloture rule originally required a supermajority of two-thirds of all senators "present and voting" to be considered filibuster-proof.[4][5] For example, if all 100 Senators voted on a cloture motion, 67 of those votes would have to be for cloture for it to pass; however if some Senators were absent and only 80 Senators voted on a cloture motion, only 54 would have to vote in favor.[6] However, it proved very difficult to achieve this; the Senate tried eleven times between 1927 and 1962 to invoke cloture but failed each time. Filibuster was particularly heavily used by Senators from Southern states to block civil rights legislation.[7]

In 1975, the Democratic Senate majority, having achieved a net gain of four seats in the 1974 Senate elections to a strength of 61 (with an additional Independent caucusing with them for a total of 62), reduced the necessary supermajority to three-fifths (60 out of 100). However, as a compromise to those who were against the revision, the new rule also changed the requirement for determining the number of votes needed for a cloture motion's passage from those Senators "present and voting" to those Senators "duly chosen and sworn". Thus, 60 votes for cloture would be necessary regardless of whether every Senator voted. The only time a lesser number would become acceptable is when a Senate seat is vacant. (For example, if there were two vacancies in the Senate, thereby making 98 Senators "duly chosen and sworn", it would only take 59 votes for a cloture motion to pass.) [6]

The new version of the cloture rule, which has remained in place since 1975, makes it considerably easier for the Senate majority to invoke cloture. This has considerably strengthened the power of the majority, and allowed it to pass many bills that would otherwise have been filibustered. (The Democratic Party had held a two-thirds majority in the 89th Congress of 1965, but regional divisions among Democrats meant that many filibusters were invoked by Southern Democrats against civil rights bills supported by the Northern wing of the party.) Some senators wanted to reduce it to a simple majority (51 out of 100) but this was rejected, as it would greatly diminish the ability of the minority to check the majority.

Steve