"A Republic, Not A Democracy"

 Interesting analysis within this post by Scott Lemieux about Mike Johnson and the Rightist talking point about how we are a "republic not a democracy". The basic idea that Christitanist authoritarians like Johnson are advancing is that we cannot have majority rule, because a tyranny of the majority is what the Framers wanted to prevent. There is some small truth in that, as they did want to prevent "democracy" when they wrote the Constitution in 1787. 

The problem is that the country has engaged in almost 250 years of political evolution from that point. Almost immediately, you had the forces roughly aligned with Jefferson arguing for more democracy. One of the most contentious issues from 1790-1820 was the degree to which America should be a "democracy" or have government be more buffered from popular sentiment. The winner of that argument was "democracy". In fact, trivia note, Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren originally called their political party "The Democracy."

Since 1830, the long historical trend has been to make America more democratic. The 14th and 15th Amendment advanced the citizenship of Blacks and the suffrage of Black men. The 19th amendment extended the vote to women. The 26th amendment lowered the voting age to 18. There have been numerous Federal efforts to expand, rather than contract, access to the ballot. 

This, of course, shows up on Republican jurisprudence as "originalism", the idea that we must read the Constitution as the people in 1787 intended it. This stands in refutation of statements like Madison's that the Constitution was meant to grow and change. 

The practical application of "originalism" and "republic not a democracy" is to work around the fact that the Republican policy agenda is really unpopular. To the degree that large numbers of people vote Republican, they are primarily voting against Democrats. Most people want the following

- A return to Roe v Wade
- Universal background checks and some restrictions on gun ownership
- Higher taxes on the wealthy
- A generally liberal, even libertarian, outlook on culture war issues
- More government involvement in providing health care coverage
- Resistance to Russian aggression

If we actually voted on issues instead of personality and "vibes" I'd argue that Democrats would currently win about 60% of a national referendum. People like Johnson understand that and therefore want to make sure that majority rule is thwarted, not because majority rule is bad, but because it is bad for them.