The debate over whether or not Mississippi should change the state flag to remove the image of the Confederate flag has featured many of the predictable arguments of previous debates on this issue.
Of all the arguments made to maintain the status quo on this issue, the most persistent is that the people of Mississippi decided the matter in 2001 when 65 percent of voters chose to keep the current flag.
Gov. Phil Bryant cited that vote when asked about his view on the matter, suggesting that the Legislature would not “supersede the will of the people on this issue.”
It is disappointing that the Governor, as well as Lt. Gov., Tate Reeves, have yet to take a real stand on this issue. Their positions demand leadership, rather than tepid deference.
For Bryant and Reeves, it appears to be a settled matter, which is also a popular sentiment among many who oppose any effort to revisit the topic.
But I argue another point.
This is an issue that should never have been left to the voters in the first place and should not be decided at the ballot box in the future.
This may seem, at first blush, like some sort of heresy, an attack on democracy, an affront to the sanctity of the aforementioned “will of the people.”
Yet our form of government relies heavily on the idea, established by our Founding Fathers, that ours is not a nation of mere popular rule.
We live in a Republic, where there are checks and balances against all forms of power, any one of which, if given free rein, would result in some form of monarchy. That, including Democratic rule, often referred to as majority rule.
Majority rule is fine, provided you are in the majority, of course. But what happens when you are a minority?
Our government is devised to make sure the rights of the minority are protected against the rushing tide of the majority. Unbridled democracy, Benjamin Franklin long ago noted, “is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” It has also been observed that one of the best examples of democracy in action is a mob. What is popular is not always fair, not always beneficial.
On some point, perhaps on many points, all of us find ourselves in the minority camp and we welcome the protections we are granted in those instances.
Pure democracy, we realize, would be an end to many liberties. White is the most popular color of car in the U.S., but if a law were passed that prevented us from owning a red car, we would not be at all satisfied by the knowledge that the majority is against us.
The fact is, relatively few of the decisions that affect our lives are made by the means of popular vote. Far more of those decision are entrusted to people we place in authority. We expect those people to study the issues carefully and make well-informed decisions that represent the common good.
Some issues are simply ill-suited to being settled by a popular vote.
I am convinced that the state flag issue is among those issues because I believe the damage rendered to the minority group far outweighs the benefit provided to the majority group.
Just as we have the right to choose our color preference when we buy a car, we each have the right to choose how we perceive the Confederate flag. But the state should not give its official sanction to one view, which is precisely what it did in 1894 when the image of the Confederate flag was added to our state flag.
The flag should be changed. And the Legislature should have the moral strength to implement that change rather than duck the issue by sending it again to the voters.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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