-Caveat Lector-
They Call It "The Democracy Predicament"
June 20, 2001 by: Phyllis Schlafly
They call it "the democracy predicament." The problem is that the
politicians who prattle incessantly about democracy are not willing to
accept the voters' democratic decisions.
"Make them vote again and again until they vote the way we tell them to
vote," is the cry! It seems that the people should not be allowed to reject
the plans for their future that the political elite worked out in closed-door
sessions last December.
The issue at hand is the ratification of the Treaty of Nice. That's Nice, as
in the French Riviera, and bears no relation to being nice to the voters.
The Treaty of Nice is designed to lock in the 15 members of the
European Union (EU) and restructure its governing authority to
redistribute power more to the larger countries and less to the smaller
ones. The treaty will then pave the way for the addition of 12 new
members, mostly former Communist countries from Eastern Europe,
thus doubling the size of what we call Europe.
The political bosses who hammered out this treaty in what they call four
"difficult days and nights" in Nice had no intention of letting mere voters
participate in the decision making. The plan was to have it railroaded to
acceptance by the political establishment in each of the current EU
countries, where unanimous passage was essential but was always
considered a certainty.
When one EU official casually suggested last year that Germany might
want to consult its voters on acceptance of the Nice Treaty, German
government officials were horrified at the thought of losing control over
the process and vehemently denounced the idea. It's not known what
punishment was meted out to the tactless guy who dared to broach such
a politically incorrect idea.
But then a funny thing happened on the way to ratification of the Nice
Treaty. One little EU country, Ireland, has a provision in its Constitution
that required a referendum. How antiquated! The enlightened European
countries have always looked down on Ireland as a backward nation, and
this provides proof anew.
On June 8, the Irish voters shocked Europe by unexpectedly rejecting the
Treaty of Nice by 54 percent to 46 percent. This surprise plunged the EU
bureaucrats into sudden disarray.
How could this happen? The entire Irish establishment supported the
Nice Treaty, including the government and all three major political
parties.
The current president of the EU, Sweden's Prime Minister Goran
Persson, immediately telephoned the Irish Prime Monster Bertie Ahern
to suggest that he arrange a second vote on the Treaty. That's a good
example of the arrogance of the EU and a preview of what's in store for
any country that surrenders its sovereignty to global bureaucrats.
A similar event happened last year. Only one of the EU countries
permitted its people to vote on acceptance or rejection of Europe's
common currency, the euro. Denmark's voters shocked Europe last
September 28 by decisively rejecting the euro, despite a powerful
campaign for it by the entire Danish establishment.
The gulf between the EU globalists and the voters who didn't want to
surrender control of their country's money was then called the
"democratic deficit." Now it's escalated to a predicament.
Ordinary European voters have figured out what their leaders have been
concealing, namely, that a common market leads inevitably to a common
government to enforce it, and the means of achieving it are fundamentally
anti-democratic. Ratifying the Treaty of Nice means surrendering the
right of self-government to foreigners with different and often antagonistic
cultures, language, religion, values, forms of government, national
security interests, and economic goals.
The Treaty of Nice would force Ireland's participation in the EU Rapid
Reaction Force. That means surrendering the right to decide when to go
to war and when to stay out of other nation's quarrels.
The Treaty of Nice would force Ireland to surrender control over its
borders and admit a free flow of impoverished immigrants from former
Communist countries. There is no way those immigrants can be culturally
or economically assimilated.
The Treaty of Nice would force Ireland to conform its laws and customs to
decisions of the EU courts. Ireland would lose its power, for example, to
set its own abortion and liquor laws.
A common market among the several states of the United States has
been a major factor in American growth and prosperity. But our own
common market depends on the states relinquishing state sovereignty to
Congress's Section 1 power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations
and among the several states."
Americans are glad to do that, firm in the knowledge that all Congress's
regulations must be subject to the U.S. Constitution. Ireland and
Denmark have given us a wake-up lesson that, whatever material
benefits may result from a common market (a.k.a. the global economy),
they are not worth surrendering national sovereignty to foreign
bureaucrats, foreign military, or foreign judges.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Read this column online:
http://www.eagleforum.org/column/2001/june01/01-06-20.shtml
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eagle Forum * PO Box 618 * Alton, IL 62002
Phone: 618-462-5415 * Fax: 618-462-8909
http://www.eagleforum.org * [EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
EAGLE FORUM
PO Box 618
Alton, IL 62002
Phone: 618-462-5415
Fax: 618-462-8909
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
TO SUBSCRIBE AND UNSUBSCRIBE:
http://www.eagleforum.org/misc/subscribe.html
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/";>ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
