Whether it was the Divine Right of Kings or deference to the democratic will, every society in existence has had some form of political morality. In more barbaric eras, where the strongest prevailed, this morality could be summed up as “might makes right.” As we have drifted further from our heritage, it seems that many individuals have forgotten this fundamental truth: a society must be based on a set of shared values.
Our values can be found in the Founding documents of our nation. Abraham Lincoln, the great proponent of political morality, likened the Declaration of Independence to an apple of gold framed in the silver of the Constitution. He believed that the Declaration contained our philosophy of government while the Constitution was a practical application of this philosophy. Those who attacked these principles were enemies of the republic and the free society which these documents produced.
Alongside this vision of political morality has been a resurgent belief in unlimited democracy. Politicians and citizens who don’t adhere to liberal ideas are often accused of attacking “our democracy.” This tactic is not just reserved to politicians in our country. Right-wing leaders such as Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Hungary’s Viktor Orban have been accused of being anti-democratic, despite achieving widespread popularity in their respective countries.
The unstinting praise that is heaped on “democracy” is nothing new in politics and merely represents the return of political nihilism. In order to work, democracy must be bound by a constitution which represents a set of political morals. In our case, the Constitution represents the promise of liberty embodied in the Declaration of Independence.
In fact, the greatest political showdowns in American history have arisen from disagreements about the place of the democratic will within our society. Stephen Douglas, Lincoln’s opponent in the Lincoln-Douglas debates, embodied these disagreements in his defense of slavery. While Lincoln argued that slavery should be stopped regardless of the democratic will, Douglas routinely stated that he “don’t care whether slavery is voted up or down.”
Douglas’s conception of political society was merely a resurgence of the “might makes right” formula of previous ages. In his view, no overarching theory of morality undergirded politics. The majority had the right to say what was just with no higher court of appeal.
The Founding generation would have scoffed at his dangerous and unAmerican rhetoric. In his famous pamphlet the Farmer Refuted, Hamilton heaped scorn on individuals who denied the existence of a higher morality. He lambasted his opponent for adhering to this dangerous political maxim stating that “Moral obligation, according to him, is derived from the introduction of civil society; and there is no virtue, but what is purely artificial, the mere contrivance of politicians, for the maintenance of social intercourse. But the reason he ran into this absurd and impious doctrine, was, that he disbelieved the existence of an intelligent superintending principle, who is the governor, and will be the final judge of the universe.” Politics are unable to be conducted justly if people don’t adhere to higher principles of morality. In the absence of these principles, it becomes a Machiavellian game of power politics.
The readvent of the phrase “our democracy” is representative of the left’s shift towards political nihilism. While they disingenuously heap praises on the democratic will, they simultaneously attack our Constitution, the repository of political morality in our country. They wish to make the masses feel their power, unbounded by any restraints. In doing so, they hope to achieve more power for themselves and enact their ideological schemes without the restraints that are imposed by our apple of gold and frame of silver.
While the democratic will is certainly important in a free society, it needs to be viewed with a proper amount of skepticism. A majority opinion does not make a wrong into a right. Our country has prospered for over 250 years because our heroes have realized this fundamental truth. The democratic will must be bound by a system that protects the rights of individuals and ensures that our country does not devolve into mob rule. The maintenance of a free society requires that we recognize a superintending political morality. Without this recognition we will see the resurgence of the age-old maxim of “might makes right” and the advent of political nihilism.
