In Parents Demanding School Officials Do Their Job ‘Not How Things Work In A Democracy’: CNN Guest, Ben Johnson, reportorting for The Daily Wire, recounts an experience a guest of CNN had at a recent school board meeting:
Rachel Vindman, the wife of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, reflected on her experiences attending her local school board meeting while discussing the importance of education as an issue in the Virginia governor’s race.
“Literally a woman at the school board meeting said she wasn’t able to sign up to talk about Critical Race Theory, so she signed up to talk about salaries. And her first opening salvo is, ‘I’m here to talk about salaries. You shouldn’t be getting yours, because you’re not doing your job,’” said Vindman. “So, this is what they want to say, like, ‘We’re only going to pay you if you do what we tell you [you] should do,’ and that’s just not how things work in a democracy.”
Vindman did not elaborate on how citizens commenting directly on public affairs undermines democracy.
An online video of the incident reveals little threat to democracy — from the mother. [As you can hear, the mother wanted to speak directly on Critical Theory being taught, but the slot was filled. So she, not unreasonably, argued that the topic she was allowed to speak on, salaries, covered the teaching of Critical Theory and explained her reasoning.]
No, this woman’s presentation is not how it works in a Democracy. But it is how it works in a free society.
In a democracy, the electoral victors reign supreme. They can do as they please, regardless of any particular constituents’ disapproval, by grace of winning an election. In a Democracy, electoral victory conveys on the victors totalitarian control. This is the sentiment expressed in the statement, “‘We’re only going to pay you if you do what we tell you [you] should do,’ and that’s just not how things work in a democracy.” Actually, that’s why a free society needs a Constitution -- to restrain the powers of government officials.
In a free society, elected officials wouldn’t be running schools. Schools would be private, and dissatisfied parents would be free to not pay schools for what they believe is “not doing your job,” by removing their children from that school, and spending their education dollars elsewhere. In a free society, private citizens are free to speak their minds; free to peaceably assemble at a public school board meeting (if they exist, though they shouldn’t) and voice opinions and express dissatisfaction; In a free society, the governed are free to petition the government for a redress of grievances. In a free society, citizens always and at all times, retain the inalienable right to hold government officials, from the president to members of congress to governors to school board members, directly and individually accountable: That’s what the First Amendment is all about.
This is why it’s so important to understand the difference between a Democracy and a Constitutional Republic, and to understand that America is, at least as originally conceived and designed, a Constitutional Republic. In our republic, the democratic process is vital, but always subordinate to the defining principle of America -- individual rights. An election is a collective means of holding government officials accountable. But America is not fundamentally about collectivism. America is about individualism, and its derivative, individual rights.
Of course, we live in a semi-Republic, semi-Democracy. Americanism has been greatly “watered down” over the decades, led by the Democratic Party/liberal/Progressive intellectual/political axis. Public schools exist, governed by quasi-dictatorial school boards, albeit elected. But a periodic election is not the primary means of keeping elected officials accountable. A single vote, cast every two, four, or six years, is important symbolically, but virtually meaningless in a practical sense. An individual woman expressing that teaching Critical Race Theory is not “doing your job” as educators directly to those responsible is what free people do to hold those we elect accountable. Yes, in a Democracy, properly understood, an elected official can tell an individual constituent to shut up, go home, and wait for the next election to cast her inconsequential lone vote, and leave we government officials alone to do what we please in the name of “the people.”
The right of the people to keep their political leaders accountable is primarily about speaking freely, by voice or in print, to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. That’s what the very First Amendment says. Democracy is not mentioned. Neither is the right to vote. The First Amendment is clear. It’s about intellectual freedom, not the procedural rules for selecting government officials.
Again, voting is not unimportant. But it is not a substitute for inalienable individual rights. Don’t let the statists get away with silencing dissenting parents, or anyone else, for whatever reason, for speaking out directly to public officials, while hiding behind the banner of Democracy. America is a Constitutional Republic based on individual rights. It is not a Democracy.
Related Reading:
America; Democracy or Republic or Both--Why it Matters
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
Constitutional Republicanism: A Counter-Argument to Barbara Rank’s Ode to Democracy
Mesmerized by Elections, the NJ Star-Ledger Forgot that Tyranny is Tyranny
The Conscience of the Constitution: The Declaration of Independence and the Right to Liberty—Timothy Sandefur
Memo to Micah Herskind: ‘True Democracy’ is a Repudiation of Americanism
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