Erin O'Toole Quotes
In a democratic society, nothing will ever receive unanimous support. The way to deal with this is to empower elected governments and ensure that they answer to voters, not to give a veto to those who are the loudest or most willing to protest or break the law.
O'Toole, Erin. "Ending the Illegal Blockades." Erin O'Toole for Leader, 18 Feb. 2020.
The University Presidents had written to the American Public arguing that the German aggression was the result of the militarists in the German society dominating the people and pushing them to war. They argued that most German people were not really responsible. Lamprecht took exception and argued that the German policy was the democratic will of the majority of the German people. He claimed that Germany at the time was more of a de facto democracy than America—as the Untied States did not have a Voting Rights Act or any way of de facto ensuring that all citizens could vote—particularly Negroes in the South. While he was accurate about the voting aspects of a democracy, Germany neither had the Constitution nor a judiciary that was independent and co-equal to the executive and legislature, but Germany did not have the institutions with democratic traditions. The greatest embarrassment to modern Germans is that Adolf Hitler was actually elected by a majority of Germans and was very popular until things in Germany started to go poorly. This quotation is very important in that it shows the importance of a Constitution to limit the powers of even a popularly elected government.
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.
This was the classic, historical argument the Fascists made to justify their take over of democratic societies; the argument made by every military junta that illegally seized power; by Julius Caesar when he took control of Rome.
Erin Michael O'Toole PC CD MP is a Canadian politician serving as Leader of the Official Opposition of Canada and the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada since August 24, 2020.
