Elite-Approved Democracy

We keep hearing about how the Electoral College is a 'threat to democracy,' since it can prevent the winner of a popular vote from becoming President (as the Founders intended, for the purpose of ensuring that a President had support across a broad set of states rather than support localized in populous regions). Democracy, we are told, is an unalloyed good.

Unless, of course, the democracy is a popular referendum that enacts Voter ID, as happened in North Carolina. There, you will recall, a single judge saw fit to set aside the will of a majority of the state's voters -- and the same people who condemn the Electoral College praised him for it.

Now, in New Mexico, a single state official has decreed that the voters may not even hold a referendum on a gun control law she favors.

Republicans cited from the state constitution that “the people reserve the power to disapprove, suspend and annul any law enacted by the Legislature.” But Toulouse Oliver said that exceptions were allowed on laws regarding “public peace, health, and safety,” according to the New Mexican....

Dozens of counties in the state have already declared themselves a “Second Amendment Sanctuary” in opposition to the Democratic-sponsored legislation. The New Mexico Sheriff’s Association previously called the laws unenforceable, saying they would punish law-abiding citizens.

(The next county over just did that "gun sanctuary" thing too. I expect it's going to become more and more common.)

A judge in Wisconsin has likewise blocked some lame-duck laws passed by the Republican legislature.

I'm beginning to get the sense that this commitment to the democratic will of the people is conditional on the people doing what the elites prefer they do.