Who exactly are "the people"?

[WI Crippler]

This term gets thrown around very loosely. Is it everybody(in a global sense), or is it just reserved for the "downtrodden" who aren't in the halls of power(be it government, corporations etc...), just the working class, just voters, just citizens(in a nationalist sense)?

 

[OxymoronP]

It is the Citizens and legal residents of the United States.

 

[Harshaw]

I think when it's used as a dagger, that's when only particular classes of people are in mind. So, when someone says something like "power to the people!" they don't actually mean everyone; they mean some kind of un- or underrepresented class (in their estimation).

However, in the Constitution, for example, "the People" means the population as a whole.

 

[Morality Games]

Pretty much everybody. But because of factionalism, the people get broken up into various entities, such as majorities and minorities of all kinds. Even though they are often in political opposition with one another, these groups are all still the people and all are entitled to the minimum guarantees of the U.S. Constitution. Meaning, while disputes will play out in our system of checks and balances, nobody gets to crush somebody's right to, say, assemble peacefully.

 

[Orion]

It's a platitude that basically means nothing anymore. No one is committed to challenging their government, and the revolutionary spirit has been replaced with rampant placation of the drooling masses via consumerism. Those that aren't so lazy that they can't stand up are too busy dividing themselves into partisan camps and fighting everyone but who needs to be fought.

 

[Wessexman]

Within a national sense there are two ways of looking at the people.

The first is as a aggregate mass of citizens unified only under the state. The people then are the masses and one can count them and think of them arithmetically and ignore any social and traditional groupings and distinctions.

The second way of looking the people is as they exist in society; meaning as they exist in the institutions and associations that make up any healthy society and always remembering these many distinctions.

The first way though it must have a bit of input is quite dangerous if it becomes the predominant way of looking at the people in a nation, as it largely is today in the mainstream, whereas the second one is the only way that, when it is the mainstream view, can really hope to hold off tyranny and the mass society.

 

[BmanMcfly]

This term gets thrown around very loosely. Is it everybody(in a global sense), or is it just reserved for the "downtrodden" who aren't in the halls of power(be it government, corporations etc...), just the working class, just voters, just citizens(in a nationalist sense)?

My first sense would be what is generally popular in surveys and all...the overall general feelings of the general population.

It could be the same views as those in the halls of power and government... but more often then not, especially lately it seems to be about the opposite of what 'the people' want.

In terms of who would count... any voting age working citizen that isn't presently incarcerated's opinions should be factored in.

Hopefully the american people don't go all the way with the whole 'trading security for freedom' thing they've been doing.

 

[American]

I think when it's used as a dagger, that's when only particular classes of people are in mind. So, when someone says something like "power to the people!" they don't actually mean everyone; they mean some kind of un- or underrepresented class (in their estimation).

However, in the Constitution, for example, "the People" means the population as a whole.

For the usual suspects, this in no way implies that illegal aliens have the rights of citizens. So let's not drag it in that direction.