Constitutional Democracy Doesn't Debase, It Dignifies


by Lewis Waha

It didn't take long after Mitt Romney announced his U.S. Senate bid for new digs at his personality to surface. As one critique goes, Romney is mismatched to America because it doesn't dole out titles of nobility for excellent character like some Old World aristocracy. Rather, the American political system rewards plebian traits. So despite Romney's being "wholesome, efficient, industrious, and faithful," Michael Brendan Dougherty finds President Donald Trump better fits America's bill by having a "fundamentally democratic personality and bearing." Of all things, Dougherty supports this by noting Trump's candor during an interview with Howard Stern after Princess Diana's death. Stern asked the future presidential nominee if he could have "nailed" the princess. Trump gave what Dougherty called the "quintessentially democratic" answer: "I think I could have."

Dismissing a man for his excellent character while highlighting another for his shameless vulgarity is puzzling if not outright disturbing. As tantalizing as it may be for the fire-bellied to diagnose and ship off the milquetoast Mr. Romney to a quaint aristocracy across the sea, the move is facile. First, it conflates nobility of character with nobility as an arcane system of peerage. Second, by looking to grossly crass talk as the measure of democratic bearing, it disregards the necessity of virtue to democracy in general and America in particular.

What seals Romney's doom as a misfit in Dougherty's view is Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution, which reads in part, "No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States." So even if Romney deserves to be rewarded for his excellence, he is tragically barred from being rewarded for it. But since American political elections are all about putting qualified candidates into public office, and being qualified means excelling in the virtues appropriate to the office, the idea that the Constitution prohibits rewarding excellence is absurd. The relevant difference between democracy and aristocracy is not the value of personal character but the nature of the reward for possessing it. Titles of nobility are hereditary and subject to the conditions of peerage, while democratically elected offices are temporary and their occupants are accountable to the people.

America's founders certainly thought virtue was vital to the American electorate. Addressing officers of the Militia of Massachusetts in 1798, President John Adams observed that "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Rather than discouraging excellence in virtue, the Constitution needs the electorate to be formed by it. The American project lives or dies on the gambit that commoners—the vulgar—can cultivate and exercise commonplace virtue.

Political philosophers understand the aspiration to nobility at the heart of modern liberal democracy. That tradition sees itself as expanding dignity from the small patrimony of aristocrats to the point of universality. Whereas once only nobles were expected to be capable of and responsible for self-rule, it is now expected of all subjects in the realm. The titled noble and the commoner alike become citizens with equal dignity and rights before the law.

In his Tanner Lectures delivered at UC Berkeley in 2009, legal scholar Jeremy Waldron describes dignity "as a quintessential aristocratic value, a form of self-command distinguished from the behavior of those who need to be driven by threats or the lash, or by forms of habituation that depend upon threats and the lash. But if it is an aristocratic value, it is one that the law now expects to find in all sectors of the population." Because of equal dignity, liberal democracy doesn't lower the bar for everyone, it raises it. To sustain itself and as a matter of aspiration, constitutional democracy doesn't debase the people, it dignifies them.

Being designed to govern fallible and finite human beings, it is certainly possible for the American experiment to fail. Perhaps at some point, a critical mass of the vulgar really did lose interest in being virtuous. But from the standpoint of the Constitution and democracy, that would be nothing to celebrate. So it's tough to make sense of why someone would want to figuratively exile a statesman like Romney while seeming to exult the match between America and the boorish side of President Trump. The current political moment of shrugging at, if not cheerleading for, crassness in American public life is inconsistent with and destructive of constitutional democracy. Patriots will pray, hope, and work for us all to move quickly past it.

Lewis Waha holds an M.A. in Christian Apologetics from Biola University and is a freelance writer focusing on faith in the public square.

More Resources


01/10/2025
Carter Funeral Brings Rare, Needed Vision of Peace


more info


01/10/2025
Three More Biden Deceptions
The president can believe what he wants to believe, and at this point, there appears to be no convincing him otherwise.

more info


01/10/2025
A Nation Suffers Whiplash Between Biden and Trump
On any other day this might seem strange

more info


01/10/2025
Biden Admin Told Us To Censor True Info


more info


01/10/2025
Facebook Admits Error--'Fact Checkers' Still Complicit
Mark Zuckerberg seems to want to reverse Facebook's censorship efforts, but those publications that participated in the program are complicit.

more info


01/10/2025
In Defense of DEI
DEI refers to three simple but important words: diversity, equity and inclusion. These three values are indispensable

more info


01/10/2025
Woke Religion Burned People's Homes to the Ground
The wildfire devastation of Los Angeles occurred largely as a result of people in power adhering blindly and madly to a very bad religion.

more info


01/10/2025
LA's Poor Communication Should Have Residents Fuming


more info


01/10/2025
Republican Party's New Ground Game


more info


01/10/2025
Opening the DNC's Black Box
Why we're publishing a previously undisclosed list of all 448 members of the Democratic National Committee

more info


01/10/2025
The Most Under-Reported Story About Biden
What was the most under-reported news story during the Biden presidency? In the last week or so, there has been a sudden burst of recognition of the extent to which Democrats and the media worked together to cover up Biden's progressing cognitive decline. One media figure after another has com

more info


01/10/2025
Biden Is No Carter
In terms of character the 46th president doesn't come close to matching the 39th.

more info


01/10/2025
Biden Says He Could've Beaten Trump. That's Delusional
Not only is Biden overestimating his political skills, he's also ungraciously insulting his vice president.

more info


01/10/2025
Dresden in Los Angeles and Our Confederacy of Dunces
LA is burning. And the derelict people responsible are worried that they are found out as charlatans and empty suits.

more info


01/10/2025
The L.A. Apocalypse Was Entirely Predictable
Today on TAP: The hills above my hometown regularly catch fire, and developers regularly build there nonetheless.

more info



Custom Search

More Politics Articles:

Related Articles

For Patients, Insurers Must Count the Coupons


COVID-19 is ravaging the nation - and taking a devastating toll on those living with chronic illnesses.

Why Did They Steal Our Flag?


For 20 years we have lived in our current home in humble Grove City, Pennsylvania. It came with a nice flagpole mounted on the front. We change the flag a lot. Sometimes we display flags with various types of art celebrating the seasons—for Fall, Winter, and Spring. Around July 4 and Memorial Day, it is an American flag. Lately, it has been a flag in honor of my oldest son.

Price Controls Inhibit Inovation and Patients' Health


With COVID-19 still raging, it's unlikely that trade negotiators from the United States and the United Kingdom will finalize a bilateral agreement before year's end.

Biden and Trump, Follow Your Heart and Mind


Typically, the heart leads us and keeps us in various places throughout life.

Trump's Drug Pricing Order Would Make George Washington Gnash His Wooden Teeth


Has America's 45th president forgotten our first commander-in-chief's most important warning?

Uncle Sam Shouldn't Steal Gilead's Remdesivir Patent


Over 30 state attorneys general recently sent a letter to federal health officials urging them to confiscate Gilead Sciences' patent on remdesivir, one of the only drugs approved for use on patients suffering severe symptoms caused by COVID-19.

Why COVID-19 Hates America


Pfizer and Moderna announced that in their advanced clinical trials, Covid-19 candidate vaccines have been 95 and 94.5 percent effective, respectively. Federal regulators have authorized the vaccines for emergency use -- and healthcare workers have started receiving shots already.

Americans Deserve a Healthy Dose of Bipartisanship


Our economy remains weak. A pandemic continues to kill thousands of citizens each day. And political tensions seem to have reached an all-time high.

America’s Minimum Wage Crisis


One problem with all Americans making a minimum of $15 an hour is that some business owners don’t make $15 an hour.

A Trump Administration Rule "protects" Insurers, Not Persons Living with HIV


Only hours before Donald Trump left the White House, the outgoing administration proposed a sweeping change to Medicare that could limit millions of Americans' access to lifesaving treatments, especially antiretroviral medications used to treat persons living with HIV.

What Are Your Solutions for America?


How do we solve the mass shootings? Do we take away all the guns? Or, do we require that every American carry a gun and be prepared to shoot back? Do we eliminate the assault rifles? Or, do we have more security guards at malls, grocery stores and work places carry assault rifles? We have a crisis in America with gun violence and mass shootings. What will Joe Biden and Congress do about this problem? Will they even attempt a solution? Mr. President and members of Congress, we need a solution.

Democrats Have a "Pack the Court, Pack the Congress" Strategy for Control of our Country And Our Lives


The political diversity of America is at serious risk as progressive forces seek to turn our nation into a one-party state -- not unlike the Communist Party that savaged Russia and its dominions in the last century. The agenda is as plain as day: pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices and grant statehood to the District of Columbia, giving the Democratic Party two new Senators.

The Worst-Kept Economic Secret in America: High Inflation Is Back


To most people, “inflation” signifies widespread rising prices. Economists have long argued, as a matter of technical accuracy, that “inflation” denotes an increasing money supply. Frankly, though, most people don’t care what happens to the supply of money, but they care a lot about the prices they pay, so I’ll focus primarily on the numerous rapidly rising prices Americans are paying today.

Patents Don't Impede Patients's Access to Drugs and Vaccines


Intellectual property rights are under assault overseas -- and here at home. These attacks could prevent the creation of dozens of lifesaving medicines. That should worry every American.