what populism is and how it can be fixed. As George Will recently put it, populism is the opposite of conservatism, ironically enough, given what it's done to the repub party. Governing by public referendum is the ultimate in pure "democracy". And populism. And it's how you get Brexit. That's the greatest example. The fix to the populism that I'm talking about is not being taken by snake oil salesmen. Like Boris Johnson. Or Donald Trump. And in some ways, Elizabeth Warren. She might be kinder and gentler, but she is selling snake oil on many things, mainly Medicare for All. The wealth tax too, which has never been successfully implemented. The complications are extreme. That is what populists do - they sell unreality by taking advantage of mob mentality.

The Establishment Clause is a protection against pure populism. Even if everyone but me in a state is Christian, that pure protection against populism prevents the entire state from imposing its religious will on me.

The Electoral College, which so many dems hate right now, because their support is so clustered in a few populous states, prevents those states from so overwhelming the "flyover" states that they just decide to ship all their garbage to them.

While dems these days will argue against the Electoral College, I bet you can see how the Establishment Clause is not a way to make the system less democratic, although it does make it less populist.

Much of the genius of the Constitution was in its protections against populism.



[Post edited by hoolstoptheheels at 09/23/2019 12:25PM]