Rick Kelo- Democracy from the Classical Liberal Perspective

We live in an age where terminology gets thrown around very loosely, and can cause all sort of confusion when discussing big ideas in economics, politics and society. Words such as liberalism, democracy, absolutism, socialism and communism are often misinterpreted and used as weapons for or against certain ideological standpoints. Trying to understand these position can better help us understand the terminology, and better make sense of the forces shaping society in the modern age. Rick Kelo is one such man whose prolific online presence has seen him explain some of these complexities in his typical articulate and engaging manner.

Richard Arthur Kelo is a guardian of liberal democracy, and you can watch a Presentation on  SlideShare discussing more of his ideas. Rick Kelo classifies himself as a classical liberal economic thinker. He belongs to the same schools of thought that saw the rise of greats like John Locke, Benjamin Franklin and the Austrian and Monetarist traditions. Through his writing, Rick Kelo discusses how people from his perspective view the current economic and government situations, and what this may mean in the long-run for American society. In a recent post, he went into how democracy is perceived, and what it means for thinkers like himself.

Putting something to a 51% vote is not sufficient to legitimize immorality for the Classic Liberal. In other words it is just as illegitimate to have unlimited sovereignty controlled by a mob as it is unlimited sovereignty controlled by a crown. That is because certain rights are inherent to humanity and cannot be voted away. You cannot vote away your free will or your ability to reason. Therefore, a Classic Liberal will tell you that a huge body of people cannot vote to establish a state religion and outlaw every other religion.

For Rick Kelo, even if every member of society but one votes in favor of it, that law is still illegitimate because no one can transfer their ability to reason for themselves. Even if every single person in society voted in favor of such a law it would not be legitimate because those people cannot deed away their moral agency or the ability to reason of every future person who later becomes a citizen of that society. Discussion like this are typical on Rick Kelo's insightful website, and if you'd like to read more about his ideas an opinions then check out his page here at Richard Arthur Kelo on Tumblr.