A Republican Form of Government

The underlying theory of republican, that is representative, government is that the people are busy going about their own lives, and have not the time, the inclination, nor perhaps the capacity, to make informed and wise decisions on every public question. Accordingly, the theory goes, the people select from amongst themselves those whose wisdom, judgment and experience they trust to represent them.

By now, everyone even slightly interested in public issues is aware of the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation question. To me, this looks like something that ought not to be permitted in the United States:

There's more to the story, no doubt, but (as the New York Times is fond of saying) "questions have been raised" respecting the handling of this matter by the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Perhaps what we're now seeing is a disaffected former employee; perhaps we're seeing racism; perhaps we're seeing politics influencing the Justice Department.

But certainly we can do better than this: