>>>>>>The bottom line is that the general public is against it
>>>>>
>>>>>I think you're advocating tyranny of the masses here, which during the making of our country was identified as a great evil.
>>>>
>>>>Haha, so you think our form of government invokes the tyranny of the masses? I've heard congress described in many different terms but . . . .
>>>
>>>No. I think that when you say "The bottom line is that the general public is against it" then you are invoking tyranny of the masses. I'm saying that we should avoid that.
>>
>>Maybe I'm not understanding what youre trying to say, but isn't that what democracy is, that the majority wins? I don't know if I'll call it tyranny of the masses.
>
>Not our democracy. The majority wins in electing representatives and leaders for their government, but the elected call the shots, not the voters. Take for instance George W. Bush and the Iraq war. I think the marjority of people in the country didn't want to go to war. I know thats certainly true of Tony Blair and his country.
>
>But we went ahead and went to war anyways. This is what the leaders decided. It was a decision that had to be made, and it wasn't made by the general public. It was made by a leader we elected to make exactly these types of difficult decisions. And the result is, even though the public opposed it, we might have done a really good thing. If Baghdad is a great place to live in 2015 I think it would be pretty safe to say that masses were wrong and that their tyranny was avoided for the better. This is why our country works the way it does, thanks to the foresight of some of our forefathers.
>
>I'll I'm saying is that the bottom line is not the public opinion of the masses, as Harvey put it. The bottom line is about whether it is right or wrong to do what we do.

Thanks for the clarification. I can't say I disagree with you.
As the general public, we vote "smart" people in to office to make difficult decisions for us, trusting that they have inside information on issues that we don't.

As the old saying goes, only time will tell.