In this country, we talk about our democracy as a system where everyone has an equal voice in our government. In truth, we live in a republic. And our founding fathers created that republic on principles borrowed from the ancient Roman republic.
For about two hundred years, the Roman republic successfully balanced the interests of the plebeians (commoners) and the patricians (nobles). The trick they employed: give the common masses enough of a voice in government that they remain happy enough not to revolt, while giving the wealthy, land-owning aristocracy a significantly larger say than the poor so that they are happy enough not to use their inherited wealth to overthrow the government.
Now, despite all our talk about “one-man, one vote,” our Republic works the same way. But in America, the only nobility is in being rich. It doesn’t really matter whether you inherited your money, earned it, or lucked into it. Money is king.
On Election day, everyone gets a vote equal to that of the richest citizen. But leading up to the big day, we have a campaign finance system where only the well off participate. And they get a voice in proportion to their ability to give. The two systems taken together create a certain balance. Everyone gets a vote—the rich just get to buy a bigger, better vote.
For example, Adolphus Busch IV inherited a great name and a bunch of money from his beer brewing ancestors. He also inherited a large chunk of land here in St. Charles. Adolphus isn’t from the part of the Busch family that goes to the brewery everyday to run the business. Instead, he has spent his life hunting game birds on his family’s estates and traveling the world with a string of polo ponies trying to win a game that most of us commoners have never even seen played.
So if you are looking for someone in St. Charles County who qualifies as part of the aristocracy, Adolphus tops the list. For a long time, Adolphus was too busy enjoying the fortunes derived from “picking” wealthy parents to interfere with St. Charles government. But recently, he became upset by St. Peters’ proposed development of 1,600 acres north of the City.
In his mind, the development was kind of close to his ancestral hunting grounds. The development would bring lights. And lights might chase off the ducks. This would interfere with his favorite past time—shooting ducks out on his 2000+ acre estate. Therefore, the development needed to be stopped.
So Adolphus demanded a meeting with St. Peters Mayor, Tom Brown, and told him that he better stop the City’s plans to build on the 1,600 acres. Mayor Brown refused to stop it. The Mayor pointed out that the citizens of St. Peters had already passed a bond issue for the project with about two-thirds of the voters’ support. He pointed out that the City had spent almost $12 million of the bond money in buying the land and preparing the site. He pointed out that it was too late to stop the development. The regular people had already spoken. Election day had already occurred. Sorry Adolphus, you lose.
So Adolphus found a young man named Shawn Brown, who had filed against Mayor Tom Brown, but had been removed from the ballot because he had not paid his taxes. Adolphus paid lawyers to sue the City on that young man’s behalf to get Shawn back on the ballot.
Then Adolphus got all his rich, St. Louis, duck-hunting buddies together and formed a PAC. He called it G.R.H.A. (which might as well stand for Greedy Rich-kids Hunting Alliance). They paid media consultants and political campaign people to run Shawn’s campaign against Mayor Tom Brown. This paid army of pollsters and media experts attacked Mayor Brown for trying to sneak through a big pay increase for himself. The voters on Election day didn’t like the pay increase. So they replaced him with Shawn Brown without noticing that Adolphus had just bought himself a mayor—a mayor who promised to stop the development.
But Adolphus didn’t understand that it wasn’t really Tom Brown who told him “no.” Tom was just speaking for all those “commoners” who voted in favor of the project.
Adolphus also didn’t understand that a mayor couldn’t stop the project without the Board of Aldermen. And Adolphus hadn’t bought any new Aldermen. So he was surprised when the Aldermen, who remembered the prior public vote, told Adolphus that it was too late to stop the development. The regular people had already spoken. Election day had already occurred. Sorry Adolphus, you lose.
So Adolphus tried to get the Corp of Engineers to not issue a permit for the City to build the project. He demanded meetings with Senators Bond and Talent to get them to threaten the Corp’s funding if the Corp issued the permit. The Senators ignored him because they knew that it was too late to stop the development. The regular people had already spoken. Election day had already occurred. Sorry Adolphus, you lose.
But Adolphus knew that the Corp couldn’t issue the permit if the State of Missouri didn’t send a letter saying it was o.k. to issue the permit. So Adolphus demanded a meeting with Governor Blunt to try and get him to stop the letter, which would stop the permit, which would stop the project. But the Governor ignored Adolphus and let the letter be issued because he knew that it was too late to stop the development. The regular people had already spoken. Election day had already occurred. Sorry Adolphus, you lose.
So the City has a permit. The earth is being turned. The rich may have a bigger voter in this republic, but sometimes it doesn’t matter how much money you have. Sorry Adolphus, you lose.
Long live the Republic.
