Liberal economist Joseph Stiglitz builds a New York Times op-ed on horror at Senator Mike Lee’s October 8 tweet: “Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.” Stiglitz comments, “Rank democracy? The only saving grace for such a pronouncement is that, at last, a Republican politician was being honest about his or her intentions. . . . [I]f people like Senator Lee have their way, and we turn our backs on democracy, then our lives and our conception of the United States as a bastion of popular representation and respect for human rights will change forever.”
This would have been overwrought even if Lee hadn’t explained his view at greater length on October 20. The “intention” about which Lee is coming clean is to preserve a constitutional system that includes both majoritarian and countermajoritarian elements. It’s a widely shared intention, as Lee notes: “Rest assured, every single critic who attacked me for correctly crediting America’s political success as a republic, not a democracy, supports counter-democratic checks and balances on majorities he disagrees with.”
One can certainly disagree with Lee about the Electoral College, federalism, and the proper scope of judicial review. But let’s not pretend that his support for checks on pure (or “rank”) democracy is unusual, let alone a sinister secret that has only now been revealed.