It’s as predictable as dawn and dusk and the rising and falling of tides. Newly elected executives and legislatures think that they have a mandate to do as they please. This is particularly evident when a political party wins a majority sufficient to control both the executive and legislative branches, thereby allowing them to influence the judiciary, shape the government bureaucracy, and exercise patronage through appointments to boards and commissions.
Immediately—Southerners would say as quick as a duck on a Junebug—a winning party, no matter how large or small the margin of victory, will claim a mandate that voters did not intend. Some self-righteous politicians fail to grasp that the people who elected them are not seeking radical change but a rational readjustment in governance.
During the years I served in the Virginia General Assembly, it became evident to me that campaigns and governance are two different things. Indeed, in some ways, they are as different as chalk and cheese. And believe it or not, most voters understand the difference. Campaigns are the argument for power. Governance, hopefully, is the judicious use of it.
Voters understand that campaigns are full of exaggeration and balderdash. Excessive rhetoric is the norm. Some voters brush that off as political shenanigans. Others are repulsed by it. Most recognize it as a natural occurrence in the process of winning votes. It’s to be expected. But voters do not expect elected officials to act as if they have a license to do anything that suits them while in power.
The truth is that most voters want good governance. They want the “trains to run on time,” service to be timely and of high quality, budgets to be balanced, debt to be managed, and freedoms protected from overreach and abuse. As James Madison wrote in Federalist No. 51.
“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.”
Embracing a false mandate defies good governance because it not only exceeds the intent of most voters but also fuels an arrogance among politicians that they have a free hand to implement policies regardless of what people want. In a sense, voters wind up saying, “Look, I invited you to the party, but I didn’t ask you to change the drapes, paint the walls some obnoxious color, or tear out my downstairs bath to install a jacuzzi!” Voters—even those who seek significant change in the way their government works—do not want to upend it to a point that exceeds their tolerance for change.
Power-grabbing politicians may think, “Hey, you elected me, right? Now I’m in charge.” That attitude is wrong and presumptuous. But that is the inclination that lodges in the heads of the politicians who assume mandates they do not have. Consider the most recent election in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The Democratic administration and legislature are moving aggressively on key issues.
First, newly elected Governor Abigail Spanberger has ended the cooperation between the Commonwealth and local law enforcement and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). However, most Virginians have no problem with removing criminal illegal aliens from among us. They certainly want it done lawfully and in an orderly manner. But they do not want to see the cooperation tossed out.
Second, the new rulers want to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for rape, manslaughter, assaulting a law enforcement officer, possession and distribution of child pornography, and other repeat violent felonies, as well as a mandatory five-day sentence for first-time DUI offenders in the state. Virginians are law-abiding, not law-denying.
Third, Virginia Democrats want to raise taxes on residents’ investments, extend the retail sales tax to previously untaxed services and industries—such as dry cleaning, landscaping, animal care, cosmetic services, and gym memberships—and impose an 11 percent tax on Virginia firearms. Indeed, they seek a delivery tax in Northern Virginia levied on Amazon and UPS. I would wager Virginia didn’t hear that tax policy during the campaign.
Fourth, while abortion is a very partisan issue, the law is relatively stable and balanced in Virginia. Yet Democrats want to permit abortion in the first, second, and third trimesters as well as eliminate parental notification. That’s extremely beyond what most Virginians want.
Finally, Democrats want to require government contracts under $100,000 to go to minority- and women-owned businesses, while implementing a 42 percent set aside for certified DEI businesses. Fair-minded Virginians want opportunity for all based on merit, not race or sex.
Falsely conceived mandates by arrogant politicians are as ultimately poisonous for them as the toxin in a mandrake root. But while one is a man-shaped root, the other is a manmade political disaster.
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