On the CJ Ticker, there’s an interesting Rasmussen poll on whether the public believes the federal government has the consent of the governed.
Only 23% of those surveyed believe the federal government has such consent. That’s a shocking number.
I’m going to agree with the 23%, to some extent.
We may not like what Congress is doing, but we have consented to be governed by those politicians. By “we” I mean the majority, not everyone.
Much of the concern expressed in the article discussing the poll seems to focus on Congress–it isn’t representing the public’s interest. That I agree with, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t consent for them to govern us.
If we don’t like the job Congress is doing, then we have recourse–vote members of Congress out of office.
There is however one huge area where we haven’t consented to be governed.
There also are the administrative agencies. There are hundreds of thousands of unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats passing laws out of whole cloth based on their own preferences. Congress simply delegates away its power to these agencies without any clear direction and the agencies can do whatever they want. When it comes to these powerful agencies, there isn’t consent of the governed.
As long as we can vote, we give consent to be governed. If we don’t like our political choices, we can get involved in the political process. I agree with the sentiment of those polled that Congress isn’t representing the interests of the public, but that shouldn’t be confused with a lack of consent.
