The Bit Biden Got Wrong

(but not as wrong as @PsychoTrump)
and the importance for Australian Values

J oe Biden said—on 14 December when the Electoral College anointed him President Elect—what everyone would think. Makes sense yeah? 

“In America, politicians don’t take power – the people grant it to them.” 

You can understand why he said that and most of us would agree.

But it isn’t correct.

Western democracies, democratic republics (real democratic republics) and nations that are effectively republics (like Australia) have something significant in common. 

The “ownership” of the country is, and is always, in the hands of the People. And the People hold, and always hold, ALL the political power. 

We never abrogate that ownership even when we think we do, even when it feels as if we have.

We never revoke or renounce our responsibility as owners—even though sometimes we would like to—because we simply can’t.  

In Australia’s case, you might say, the Queen owns everything and we own nothing. But the Queen has no power over us, or any of her several “dominions”. She must, and can only, do what she is told to do by her various Prime Ministers. And those Prime Ministers must act on the Will of the People. 

The Queen is not our real head of state, she is our “statutory”, or “ceremonial” head of state. That is, she is a powerless symbol of power. She is like a lifeless statue that represents our power.  (To be sure, she does have dominion over all swans on the River Thames.) The British government has no power over Australia. By the Australia Act 1986 (Cth) and the Australia Act 1986 (UK) all power was devolved to Australia. Australia became “a sovereign, independent and federal nation”. This eliminated the power of the UK to legislate with effect in Australia, to be involved in Australian government, and terminated the ability to appeal from any Australian court to a British court. This formally separated all legal ties between Australia and the UK. 

Nevertheless, the Queen . . . . . .  This is a classic skyhook. Australia still (not being a republic) holds onto a skyhook attached to an idea called the monarch. And the monarch holds onto a sky hook that used to be called the “divine right of kings”. The British Monarch’s motto is still “Dieu et Mon Droit“, a straightforward (or a straight-up), hook to a god.

But. Australia is legally a secular state (even though they do the lord’s prayer in parliament at the start of business). In any case,  the Glorious Revolution of 1688 put a end to the divine right of kings being real (which of course it never was) or meaningful

So the skyhook, which had once drawn power from the people to the monarch, has crashed to the ground like a flaming meteor when it realised it didn’t exist.   

So as Sir Roger has noted recently:

In a democracy the power is always, and remains, in the people – the citizens – not in the politicians.

Power does not emanate from the politicians, despite their frequent attempts to steal it.

The People’s power does not go TO the politicians.

The People’s power goes THROUGH the politicians. 

Their job is to steer the power we have, to do what the Citizens say they must.

Politicians (and bureaucrats) are, flatly, our employees, not our employers.

We can never forget this.

If we do, our democracy is ready to be stolen, as democracies have been stolen by so many despots, tyrants, dictators, “strong men”, and “Presidents for Life” (like She Ping Pong and Voldermort the Poisoner. And like Trump longed to be).