Salus populi suprema lex. I first came across this term when I was reading John Locke's Second Treatise on Government. The phrase is Latin and translated it means the good of the people is the supreme law. About ten minutes before I started writing this post I read an interesting article. The article I read was concerning an illformed pact to protect marriage. Now I want to clarify that I think that marriage is between one man and one woman. That is not the issue nor is it the point. The point is that this pact was so poorly made that it forced law makers into a corner that they could not get out for fear of breaking this contract. This and another pact made to never raise taxes seem to be an indication of a terrible direction. That direction is supporting causes so wholeheartedly that the good of the people is sacrificed for the good of the cause.
The good of the people must be taken into consideration. Now when I say the people I do not mean the voters nor your supporters. I mean the entire population for which you as an elected leader are responsible for. This would, of necessity, require the elected official to forgo his agenda or his party's agenda to bolster the general populace of the United States. Sometimes a program or theory doesn't work the way it is expected to. So rather helping it harms. The only thing to be done then is to change opinion and action for the good of the people! This is not flip-floppery neither is it conviction flim-flammery. No, this is a reasoned and well thought out approach. This is the course that a leader must take in order to help his or her nation.
To illustrate let's look at a basic everday life problem. Say your TV is broken and won't turn on. You've checked the plugs and all the other cords and all are connected yet there is still no picture. How many times would you go through the process before you say, "Stupid pos is broken guess I better go buy a new one." For me it takes like three times before I realize that yes the TV is broken and yes I need a new one. However if we acted like our politicians do we would sit stubbornly in front of the TV pretending that blank screen was playing the Super Bowl...in July.
Why do they do this? To win political points with the delegates. This is insanity at its finest and such a practice needs to be halted. The question is how?
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