The Irish Solution doesn't work in a nation where a Constitutional system is designed to guard personal liberties, irrespective of the popular will. If one believes that abortion in the Roe v. Wade framework should be constitutionally protected, the freedom of a woman to access this should not depend on a majority vote of the residents of her region.
The same goes for the rights of same sex marriage. Ireland, until recently, had a blasphemy law that never could be permitted under our First Amendment. Even if virtually everyone in Ireland wanted the law to remain in force, it still should have been repealed because it violated freedom of expression.
The objective is not direct democracy on every issue. The goal is constitutional democracy. In constitutional democracy the will of the majority must yield to minority rights, in areas of law where the minority should have those rights. If an overwhelming majority of voters in a given state believe that atheists should not be permitted to hold public office, this large majority should still not be able to pass such a prohibition into law.
In most states, the initiative and referendum process exist whereby voters can bypass their elected representatives and directly vote to enact new laws or repeal existing ones However, no such ballot measure, even if passed by a large majority of voters, can go into effect if the result would be the unconstitutional violation of someone's rights.
A pregnant woman shouldn't have to put together a coalition of a majority of people in a given region, in order to be able to have an abortion.
I just listened to "We Don't Know Ourselves", a book about the Irish identity by Fintan O'Toole. Having Irish ancestors who came to the US during and after the Famine, I thought it was a very interesting look at the Irish character.
It is surprising how the views changed from 1983 to 2018 on the face of it, but according to Mr. O'Toole, much of that had to do with the dissatisfaction and disappointment from revelations about the Catholic Church. Because of this, and the influence of mostly American culture on Ireland, many of the severe conservative views on abortion and gay marriage began to change.
For better or worse (worse), the identity-politics left will never accept the "Irish Solution". For better or worse (worse), the identity-politics left controls the Biden administration.
The Irish Solution doesn't work in a nation where a Constitutional system is designed to guard personal liberties, irrespective of the popular will. If one believes that abortion in the Roe v. Wade framework should be constitutionally protected, the freedom of a woman to access this should not depend on a majority vote of the residents of her region.
The same goes for the rights of same sex marriage. Ireland, until recently, had a blasphemy law that never could be permitted under our First Amendment. Even if virtually everyone in Ireland wanted the law to remain in force, it still should have been repealed because it violated freedom of expression.
The objective is not direct democracy on every issue. The goal is constitutional democracy. In constitutional democracy the will of the majority must yield to minority rights, in areas of law where the minority should have those rights. If an overwhelming majority of voters in a given state believe that atheists should not be permitted to hold public office, this large majority should still not be able to pass such a prohibition into law.
In most states, the initiative and referendum process exist whereby voters can bypass their elected representatives and directly vote to enact new laws or repeal existing ones However, no such ballot measure, even if passed by a large majority of voters, can go into effect if the result would be the unconstitutional violation of someone's rights.
A pregnant woman shouldn't have to put together a coalition of a majority of people in a given region, in order to be able to have an abortion.
I just listened to "We Don't Know Ourselves", a book about the Irish identity by Fintan O'Toole. Having Irish ancestors who came to the US during and after the Famine, I thought it was a very interesting look at the Irish character.
It is surprising how the views changed from 1983 to 2018 on the face of it, but according to Mr. O'Toole, much of that had to do with the dissatisfaction and disappointment from revelations about the Catholic Church. Because of this, and the influence of mostly American culture on Ireland, many of the severe conservative views on abortion and gay marriage began to change.
For better or worse (worse), the identity-politics left will never accept the "Irish Solution". For better or worse (worse), the identity-politics left controls the Biden administration.
I love this! We need a Citizen's Assembly in the US!