The answer is quite simple: we do it through government. We enact our rights as States and The People THROUGH our federal government the "consent of the governed" indeed! All of the great federal programs, from the interstate highway system, the electrification project and Social Security right on through NASA and our current hot potato projects such as health care were mandates by The People and enacted by their elected representatives. This is exactly how government is supposed to work as outlined by our founding documents! This is the "democracy" component of our government; the majority sets policy, except for what is prohibited by the same Constitution that restrains government.
This brings me to another canard; "We're a republic, not a democracy!" This is what many conservatives are constantly telling us. Yet if we crack open a dictionary, we shall quickly see that one does not preclude the other. A republic is simply any form of government that is NOT a monarchy. This is why Mexico and China are also republics, yet they're pretty different from ours!
Our founding fathers weren't too fond of democracies. In fact, James Madison wrote that "Democracy is the most vile form of government... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention: have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property: and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." History showed Madison and his contemporaries that "mob rule" quickly falls apart unless it could be governed in some fashion. Benjamin Franklin concisely illustrated the biggest problems with democracy when he wrote: "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." A graphic illustration of how majorities can become tyrannical. So how in the world, you might ask, did they expect to create a "government by The People" if this is the case? The short, simple answer is the Bill of Rights, the "liberty" in Franklin's quote. As long as certain things are set aside from contention, then our founders gambled that democracy could achieve it's potential. Such a thing had never been done before in recorded history! We are literally an ongoing experiment in self-government; a constitutionally governed Democratic Republic.
SO STOP IT!!!
Politicians: QUIT LYING about the Constitution to battle against policy you don't like, yet the majority has tasked their representatives to deal with. (In fact, it would be best if you stopped lying altogether since the truth always comes out eventually.) STOP trying to confuse and obfuscate; STOP revising history to suit your worldview. (And that goes for you, too, media!) If we as a nation are to succeed, we must get past the phony, politically fueled controversy and learn to work together for common goals. Otherwise we'll be overtaken by those countries that do, and they might not have a Bill of Rights.
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