The "Consent of the Governed" Applied to Elections

[Land Shark]

This is an excerpt from an upcoming Foreword to a book by Guvwurld. The foundation of our country:

"<..> As John Locke wrote, a society of free and equal citizens can’t have any superiors or rulers, except for those who rule only by virtue of actual or implied consent. Consent is critical to actual legitimacy because the application of the compulsive force of law against free, equal citizens could not be based upon the rulers’ superiority, it would instead have to be based upon the consent of the people, obtained through reason. These late 1600s ideas became the spirit of 1776, the Declaration of Independence’s phrase “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” as well as the Constitution’s opening three word frame: "We the People".

The Founders intended that all elected representatives and government officials, as loyal trustees of the people’s power, would “*incessantly* consult *their* good”, since the government was a fiduciary and public servant whose only legitimate purpose was “to secure individual rights”.

The consent of the governed was also *conditional* on the proper exercise of this trusteeship in power. Thus, the government is utterly devoid of power to do anything else but serve the people, for the simple reason that it is plainly absurd to imagine that the People actually consented at any time to any form of tyranny or disloyalty to the people, when the sole purpose and intent of delegating power to the government was to create a class of public servants, loyal to the people, devoted to their general Welfare, and accountable to the people through elections and otherwise.

Based on this and other background on consent of the governed, <...> we can readily see or divine important corollaries regarding the consent of the governed: (1) Elections are the mechanism for measuring the existence of the consent of the governed. (2) Tyranny or disloyal service to the people, even if practiced for a hundred years, could not thereby act in any way to establish a general right to tyrannize or be disloyal to the people, because consent is the key. (3) Trustees (politicians and government workers) are necessarily and properly accountable to the people they serve both through elections and all other times. (4) The public servants dealing with elections can not purport to tamper with the very foundations that authorize their own legitimacy: the Constitution, the People, or Elections, they can only serve and uphold the Constitution, the People, and Elections, and are obligated and sworn to do so."

[Peace Patriot]

1. Go, Land Shark! STOP the privatization of U.S. elections!

Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

Some resources for American Revolution II:

Breaking--just announced: www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal "certification" of Diebold election theft machines.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496


www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Bob Koehler's latest: "Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

------------------------------------------------

Throw Diebold, ES&S and all election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

[Land Shark]

2. Thanks! But you know, I'm tryin' to get the sheriff to grab the machines

so you don't have to take the long hike to the harbor! (the sheriff executes on judgments...)

[Amaryllis]

3. Great framing of the issue, as usual, Land Shark!

[Land Shark]

5. A shout out to the best framers of them all, the FRAMERS! n/t

[Land Shark]

10. speaking of framers, check out this take on 'don't tread on me'

i suggested the wording, but glitch knocked me out with this:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... >

[Amaryllis]

12. dead link

[Land Shark]

13. then try this link if the above one doesn't work

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=417025&mesg_id=417319>

[Amaryllis]

11. Great pun, LS!

[petgoat]

4. Consent obtained through reason

"Compulsive force of law against free, equal citizens could not be based upon the rulers’ superiority, it would instead have to be based upon the consent of the people, obtained through reason."

Faith in electronic voting is inherently based on the citizens' inferiority in evaluating technologies;
reasonable consent is possible only for computer scientists (and they're screaming bloody murder).

I wonder at what point true Yankee Doodles would feel obligated to apply blunt objects to voting
machines (without advocating any such application)?

[Kurovski]

6. K&R

:patriot:

[Land Shark]

7. Now imagine these election "voter intent professionals" as they actually..

BLAME THE VOTER for the defects in their instrumentation. Ever see a doctor start ragging on the patient when the thermometer didn't work properly?

[FogerRox]

8. Kick for the Shark. & Guv.

Hosted by:
http://news.globalfreepress.com

[Land Shark]

9. much obliged. The Guv is busy, in a good way

[kster]

14. kick.nt

[FogerRox]

15. kickin for us

[mdmc]

16. a kick for the guv's e-book