ABSTRACT
Congress shows itself available to any such line of argument, and off-year congresses like to remind presidents, in the most forceful manner possible, that the system has rituals other than that of the presidential election. What the people are always dealing with in the American system is, on the present showing, Two Majorities, two numerical majorities, each of which can, by pointing to the Rule, claim what Dahl calls the 'last say', and each of which merits the attention of that part of 'democratic theory' that deals with problem of majority rule. One of the two majorities, the presidential, has been engrafted onto our political system: it was not intended by the Framers, not even present to their minds as something to be 'frustrated' and have 'barriers' put in its way. The essentially aristocratic character of the electoral process that produces the older of the majorities as over against the democratic character of the electoral process that produces the newer.
