Many people think that the purpose of a Constitutional Republic was to protect against the tyranny of the government, but the founders of the United States also wanted to construct a system that protected against the tyranny of the majority. The USA is not a pure Democracy because the founders believed Democracy and mob rule could be just as dangerous as tyrannical rule. It’s kind of brilliant when you think about it.
The problem is, we seem to be getting increasingly polarized and our unworkable politics are reflecting this. In short, we’re not being forced to understand one another and work with one another. So we’re seeing all three branches of government flip at the same time, no check in place and all the while things don’t get fixed, both sides blame the other, rinse, wash, repeat. It’s terrible and it’s not the way things should work.
If I had a criticism of what the Founders did it would be that they didn’t create a requirement that one branch of government MUST always check the others. In other words, all three branches cannot legally be of the same party because then you have a form of tyranny of the majority. But that egg probably can’t be unscrambled by now….
Anyhow, the way I vote is consistent with the way the Founders wanted things – I enforce diversity. So, for instance, the Republicans control the House, Senate and Executive branch. This is bad because it means the two sides aren’t working to pass policies that appeal to most of their constituents. The Executive branch is not up for election and the Senate is very likely to remain Republican. So the House needs to flip to enforce the check on the other two branches and get people working together.
Now, I’m not saying you need to vote 100% Democratic in this election. I won’t. In fact, I think if you’re a Republican you’re maybe better off voting Republican on most measures and races that aren’t the House of Representatives. But, if you want the dysfunction to stop and you want to enforce some diversity and healing across our government so that our politicians start understanding that they need to reach across the aisle then you should vote Democrat for the House of Representatives. That’s how the founders would have wanted it.
Mr. Roche is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Discipline Funds.Discipline Funds is a low fee financial advisory firm with a focus on helping people be more disciplined with their finances.
He is also the author of Pragmatic Capitalism: What Every Investor Needs to Understand About Money and Finance, Understanding the Modern Monetary System and Understanding Modern Portfolio Construction.