April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
EDITORIAL

Most of the people can sometimes be wrong

HEAD> Most of the people can sometimes be wrong <p id="h0-p1" class="permalinkable"><p id="h0-p2" class="permalinkable"> <hr/> <hr/> <p id="h0-p3" class="permalinkable"> <p id="h0-p4" class="permalinkable"> When Pope John Paul II was in St. Louis earlier this month, he didn't temper his opposition to capital punishment because most Catholics support the death penalty. That's a lesson some U.S. Senators should study before voting on President Clinton's future.<p id="h0-p5" class="permalinkable"> As the Senate trial of President Clinton winds down, many observers, even some Senators, have said that no popular president will ever be removed from office by impeachment and conviction. Doing so, they say, would be to act against the will of the people. But it is one of the paradoxes of American democracy that the will of the majority has often been set aside; that's because the majority can be egregiously wrong.<p id="h0-p6" class="permalinkable"> A look at American history shows that majorities opposed the revolution against England because they were comfortable in that transatlantic relationship, supported slavery because it was economically advantageous, denied women the right to vote because "they don't have the wit to exercise it intelligently," and believed in segregation because "the races can never be truly equal." Yet the colonies rebelled, slavery was banned by an amendment to the Constitution, women's suffrage was attained, and integration was ensured through federal and state legislation.<p id="h0-p7" class="permalinkable"> Ironically, even President Clinton, whose political spine is notoriously flexible, does not always bend to the will of the majority. He twice overturned that will when he vetoed legislation banning partial-birth abortions, a ban which was supported by nearly three-quarters of the populace.<p id="h0-p8" class="permalinkable"> A case can be made that there are legitimate reasons to excuse President Clinton's crimes and misdemeanors. But those Senators who do so by cowering behind "the will of the people" are abrogating their responsibility as representatives who have their own consciences to follow and their own duty to lead. As time passes, such people -- like the Tories, Confederate, male chauvinists and racists -- often find themselves on the wrong side of history. <p id="h0-p9" class="permalinkable"> (02-11-99)<a href="../index.htm#Roman"></a><br/><br/> [[In-content Ad]]<!-- 19990211edit.htm --></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p></p>

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