Conservatives and majoritarianism

[bluestateguy]

I've noticed a trend of late, whereby people on the Right back up their arguments by falling back on majoritarianism: in other words, the idea that their ideas are legitimate and correct simply because (or allegedly because) a majority of the American people ratified them in the last election.

I post on over at another board that deals with mostly non-political topics. One time recently when the discussion turned political, this right-winger when on this rant about his ideas must surely be correct, because, by God, his guy won the last election. There was no defense of any of any conservative ideas at all. His argument was basically just "The majority agrees with me. Therefore I must be right and you must be wrong". Putting aside whether or not the Right really has the hearts and minds of a majority of Americans, I have to say that I have noticed such techniques of argument being increasingly used by the Right on various message boards on the internet. Not only is this a poor technique of argument, it also represents a misunderstanding of democracy and morality.

Need I remind people that in some cases for many years a clear majority of Americans supported slavery, segregation, Indian removal, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War.

Being in the majority may make you feel good and validated, but it does not ratify the correctness of your ideas.

[EstimatedProphet]

1. I agree. This is a poor way to argue

Additionally, an analogue of this is "You guys lost, so you're stupid" or the like. It's the whole idea that winning is everything.
Look where that leads-it's more important to win than be right, so whatever you do to win is acceptable. Sums up how the Republicans think quite well, IMO. The problem is that their followers that the Republicans keep ripping off feel this way too, so they feel like they "won" when they're getting pants'ed by the people they support.

[carnie_sf]

2. The founding fathers

whom the repukes are so fond of invoking (except when they inconveniently don't agree with them) were very worried about what they referred to as the tyranny of the majority. I believe that was the reason for the 60% cloture rule in the senate.

[gumby]

3. This is a Major Meme being repeated

almost as often as "up or down vote." (sam thing, actually)

It exposes the "Cornpone Nazis" (hehe) in at least 2 ways. Their "worldview" is all about Social Darwinism. EVERYTHING they argue about comes down to -- might makes right. (Iraq, anyone?)

Their sophomoric argument of might-makes-right has now morphed into "WE WIN, WE WIN, WE WIN.... so now we get to do any damned thing WE want because WE WON, WE WON."

They are exposing their arrogant and absolute contempt for a representative republic. Their WE WON chants are like a mob cheering a dictator.

Nevermind that the last 2 presidential elections have shown that "W" didn't "win." All that matters is POWER, even by 1% of the corrupt national vote.

In the Senate, the Democrats represent a larger percent of the population than the Republicans, so you can see where they are going. These WE WON freaks are blathering for minority rule that shuts out the larger population.

Reminds me of some really nasty history.