Robert W. Welch Jr. Quotes
In a democracy there is a centralization of governmental power in a simple majority.
Welch, Robert W., Jr. Republics and Democracies. American Opinion, 1961.
Although it had conservative and progressive support, there was opposition in the middle and the vote failed in the House 188 to 209. See Hamilton Fish for the amendment text.
His use of the noun “Democracy” refers not to a form of government but the specific institution of the Democratic Party. Smith, like many of the Founding Fathers was deeply suspicious of political parties. See also {614907}. Smith had written to most of the then likely Presidential candidates of both major parties asking for their position on the Mormons who were facing persecution wherever they went. None of the politicians would make any satisfactory commitments. Smith took Direct Action and became the only major religious official to have run for the Presidency of the United States until Pat Robertson tried and failed in 2000. Smith’s assassination shortly thereafter cut his run for the Presidency short before it made much headway and politically he had no chance to affect the race.
A major problem of new and emerging democracies is that many people believe that majority rule per se is democracy. In Egypt for example, Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood won the election. They then assumed that they had the right to do anything including exempting the government from judicial review or deciding the role of women in society or denying freedom of religion to non-Muslim citizens. Democracy is not a serial autocracy with each new autocrat being selected by a free and fair election.
This quotation illustrates the "winner take all" conceopt of many political cultures that call themselves and think of theselves as a democracy. But a true democracy does not allow a tyranny of the majority--especially a very narrow minority.
Robert Henry Winborne Welch Jr. was an American businessman and political organizer. He was wealthy following his retirement from the candy business and used it to sponsor anti-communist causes. He co-founded the far right group the John Birch Society (JBS) in 1958 and tightly controlled it until his death. He was highly controversial and criticized by liberals, as well as some conservatives, including William F. Buckley Jr.
