The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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March 20, 2010

Your View: Tea partiers already have eyes open

Brett C. Carpenter, St. Peter

— In response to Rodger Welke’s recent Your View letter about Tea Partyers, I wish to remind everyone the parent phrase of Welke’s “A great democracy is created around majority rule” is actually “Majority Rule, Minority Rights.”

Catering simply to the majority is a dangerous proposition in all instances. The rights of the minority must be protected, which many feel is the true center of a great democracy, or in our case a great republic.

The classic examples of ignoring the rights of the minority are Nazi Germany and the civil rights movement.

The Senate filibuster is one of a powerful few weapons to be used against bills that forsake the minority to the advantage of the majority. This measure protects the rich from the poor, the immigrant from the natural-born, the hard-working from the idle, the sick from the healthy, and all vice versa.

I would contend that our founding fathers would have used the filibuster for two reasons: To oppose tyranny and big government, and to oppose bad ideas that seem nice — which is really a repeat of the first.

A fateful conundrum then, to see that the majority of Americans oppose the current health care reform bill. Unfortunately, we the voters have let our politicians abuse the rules unpunished for too long, and now our leaders plan to abuse them again.

After all, what will the average voter do about it? History says they’ll do nothing. They’ll continue to be herded like sheep, watched by Big Brother.

We tea partyers however, operate a little bit differently in the face of oppression. Tea partyers don’t need an eye-opener.



 

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