Mike Gravel.(DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE)(Biography)

"What have you trust, a decision made by a constituency, the majority of 130 million people, or the majority of 535 members of Congress who do unbelievably stupid things?"--M. Gravel

Mike Gravel's campaign slogan is "Let the people decide." And this is exactly what one of his proposals is about, to make American citizens lawmakers at all levels of government. To this end, he wants to enact "the National Initiative for Democracy--a legislative package that includes a constitutional amendment and a federal statute that empowers Americans as lawmakers" by creating a national system of voting on issues through ballot initiatives.

Gravel claims that the Founding Fathers failed to incorporate a plan for direct democracy into the Constitution because they believed the people would have voted to outlaw slavery. In his opinion "our founding fathers--in order to save slavery ... fixed it so the American people could not make laws." In support of his plan, Gravel makes an appeal to the supposed wisdom of the majority. "What would you trust," he asks, "a decision made by a constituency, the majority of 130 million people, or the majority of 535 members of Congress who do unbelievably stupid things?"

In truth, Gravel's view is at odds with the Founding Fathers, who wisely recognized that unrestrained majority rule would inevitably lead to the loss of freedom. This is particularly true of direct democracy. As James Madison warned in The Federalist, No. 10, "A pure democracy can admit no cure for the mischiefs of faction [party].... Hence it is, that democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." Our Founding Fathers created a republic (a government of law, where the rights of the individual are protected), as opposed to a democracy (a government of men).

As early as 1976, as a U.S. Senator from Alaska, Gravel urged that all Americans should be "world citizens first and Americans second." He has continued to be a passionate supporter of world government, which he believes can be created through direct democracy. In 1992, he argued that the people should "call for a worldwide convention, elect delegates who draw up a constitution for a world government, and then vote referendum-style to accept the new system." More recently, (at the August 19 debate in Iowa, Gravel stated during a YouTube interview with Minnesota-based music producer Dan Connor: ...