How did the founders feel about the “masses” and their importance on shaping public policy? Does public opinion impact American politics? If so, provide examples of how. Should public opinion matter? Why or why not?
Best Answer
It is difficult to answer any question that asks about how the founders felt about anything. While there were many more people involved in the American Revolution, resulting in some disagreement about who was a founder, there is a list of 10 people that consistently get mentioned as founders or founding fathers. However, these 10 people were not ideologically identical. In fact, there was a substantial amount of disagreement among them about a number of topics, including the rule of the average person in democracy. To get a better feel for their competing ideas, you can reference the writings in the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers.
Most of the founding fathers wanted the United States to be more of an example of direct democracy, and they were very concerned about the evils of political parties and factions. However, Benjamin Franklin believed that a two-party system developed because humans tended to naturally clump into two broad groups and that the Constitution should account for that tendency by including references to political parties.
Despite their belief in direct democracy, it is important to understand just how classist the founders were. Without exception, they were moneyed white landowners, and they were generally open about their concerns about how the masses would vote. In fact, some of the protections written into the Constitution, such as the lifelong appointment of judges, were designed to help protect the country from the influence of public opinion. However, the founders were also aware that public opinion does shape society and that society should evolve. In fact, they made the Constitution amendable so that it could reflect a changing society and evolving social mores (public opinion).
Public opinion clearly impacts American politics, and it seems clear that to have a democracy, even a representative democracy, this has to be the case. As public opinions towards slavery, women’s rights, civil rights, and LGBTQ+ issues have changed, so have laws. The U.S. began as a country that protected the rights of landed white males, and now there are laws that protect other people, even if they are not applied evenly, quite yet. However, laws have also changed public opinion. In almost every area where civil rights have advanced, a growing but minority portion of the population began to endorse those changes, which then received legislative or judicial approval, and then those changes helped shape public opinion.
