Mandates

I think we have a problem with language in America. The word “mandate” is being used over and over again with meanings that most likely differ from what the speaker intends. According to my dictionary (Merriam Webster) the word is defined as:

“An authoritative command from a superior authority such as a court; an authority

 specifically granted by those who have elected a representative.”

The current use of the term – mandate – does not fit the definition.

The Donald claims a mandate to lead America. He has no such thing. No court or significant majority of voters have named him a leader with a mandate. He has won by constitutional definition the position of President Elect and will be inaugurated on January 20, 2017 to the Presidency of the USA. The position does not come with a mandate. It comes with authority and duty.

Witness the Obama election: a majority of those voting handily elected him to his current term of President. He did not claim a mandate, but he did claim authority to speak for the American people; that is as it should be because it is part and parcel with the job description.

Trump will have that same authority, but it is not a mandate nor is that term defined in the constitution. The fact that less than half of voters selected Trump and in terms of the Electoral College this led to his being declared the victor in the election, specifically denies him a mandate. No majority or super majority has named him with such.

The fact that the Supreme Court is in shambles – an ideological tie between conservatives and liberals – is only the result of ideological bluster and manipulation by republicans. Filling the ninth justice position was attempted by the sitting president as he was required to do but rejected by game players in Congress. A constitutional stalemate resulted and now the Supreme Court does not have a mandate.

The US Senate is in the hands of the Republicans by a slim majority – 48 to 52. This line in the sand can be upset easily depending on the issue under discussion. And thus no mandate is present in the Senate. If the numbers were 60 Republicans to 40 Democrats, then an argument could be made for a mandate. But such is not the case.

The House of Representatives has been in Republican control for the past several years. It will continue as such, but the margin has dwindled. American voters did not lay a mantel of mandate on the House. It has majority position but that alone does not provide the ‘moral’ mandate they are claiming.

So, with four authority loci – White House, Supreme Court, House and Senate – enumerated, only one has a majority position. No mandate is available in the first three loci and it is questionable in the fourth.

Conclusion: no mandate to rule from a position of unique strength exists in the current government of the USA.

Saying it is so does not make it so. But here again, the principle of saying and making it fact is a pattern of political discourse we have seen in America for lo these past several decades. It is pure ideological nonsense. And it is obstructive of the job of governance.

Ideologically it goes beyond obstruction to destruction. Examples include:

• Repeal of the Affordable Care Act without a workable replacement program
• Continued avoidance of replacing necessary infrastructure for the common good and health of the American people and economy
• Under funding education initiatives that would ensure education outcomes keeping American citizens competitive in the global labor pool
• Denigration of safeguards to our shared ecology thus placing under threat our planet’s very existence
• Inability to discuss matters of science without emotional burdens
• Equating religion with governance 

There are more examples to offer but they would further demoralize the reader.

Logic should be the arbiter of all discussion. Logic, fact and science are the bedrock of our knowledge. Addling the process of governance with other components other than reality is insanity.

The American voter is being used as the scapegoat here. Rather the ‘representatives’ are and should be the scapegoats. They are the ones claiming what isn’t theirs to wield.

Mandate comes with authority, moral authority. Last time I checked the moral ingredient was seriously lacking.

When oh when will this nightmare end?

January 9, 2017