Politics

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Divine Right of Legislators?
By David Wiseman
In order to defend his vote that contradicted the will of the people, California state assemblyman Gil Cedillo stated, “The people aren’t always right.”
Mr. Cedillo voted for a law that would allow gay marriage in the state of California, contrary to 2000’s proposition 22 that defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
Mr. Cedillo, if the people might be wrong in the case of proposition 22, why couldn’t they have been wrong when they elected you? What’s worse, at least prop. 22 was voted on by all the people of California, while only some of them elected you! Does this not make it more probable that you were a mistake?
In a representative government we must assume that the people are right. If that is not so, the government, and Mr. Cedillo’s position in it, are meaningless. What is the representative’s job if it is not to represent the people? It is by no means his place to decide what is moral and what is not, what is good and what is bad. It is rather his place to be the voice of the people in government. It is his job to represent the people, as his title tells us. If his job is something else the representative is claming he is God! He is claiming that he has an authority outside of the people.
The Declaration of Independence says, “And that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
This is the basis of our modern government, no other. Mr. Cedillo is not simply redefining the California state constitution, he is redefining government. He is declaring that he is an enlightened ruler and that the people are no better than primeval slime.
Be wary, Mr. Cedillo, lest the people you put down have the nerve to think, and to put you down.

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