Honduras: Lessons in Constutionality

Thanks to Gus Van Horn for linking to an excellent article on the latest developments in Honduras. The appropriateness of ousting former Honduran President Zelaya for his unconstitutional activities has been reinforced by further details and this week-end's election.

America, North, South and Central, still struggles to understand the prerequisites for freedom, but recent events in Honduras provide an example worthy of emulation.

WSJ In Elections, Honduras Defeats Chavez, by Mary Anastasia O'Grady

And from Honduran, Rodrigo Cantero:

Time and time again we have seen "democrats" like Hugo Chavez, like Evo Morales, like Rafael Correa and now Daniel Ortega trying to turn their countries into their own private ranches, and we have seen the International Community stand by and just applaud rigged election after rigged election.

Cantero's scare quotes are unnecessary though. Chavez, Morales, Ortega, Correa...and Hamas, and Ahmadinejad, and unfortunately Obama and the U.S. Congress, are democrats. Democracy is not commensurate with liberty--but with unfettered majority rule: mobocracy. The presence of elections, in-and-of themselves, do not preserve liberty. What preserves freedom, in Honduras, in the United Sates, and anywhere, is a constitution which places the protection of individual rights above the will of the majority as well as beyond the control of a would-be-dictator.

This is a lesson the United States will have to relearn if we wish to continue to live in liberty.



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