I absolutely hate, loathe, despise,
detest, abhor, and am otherwise dissatisfied with it when I hear
people call the United Stated of America a DEMOCRACY. It has NEVER
been, isn't NOW, nor will it EVER be a democracy (not if *I* have
anything to say about it, anyway). In fact, the word “democracy”
does not appear in any of our founding documents. It amazes me that
people don't know the difference.
The quickest way to explain the
differences between a Republic and a Democracy is this:
In a Republic, YOU, the individual,
maintain your rights regardless of who's in power (ostensibly).
That's the whole point of it, really – to ensure that YOU keep YOUR
rights to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” - to
PROTECT the minority from the majority.
In a Democracy, your rights only exist
at the sufferance of the majority. Ownership means nothing when the
majority can vote to take it away from you. It's “mob rule.”
The individual means little in a democracy.
In the reality of the political
spectrum, a true democracy has more in common with socialism than
most people might think. Sure, there's elections – but what
happens when those that win said elections are not who you wanted to
win? Who protects you from them? Think about it. I'm sure you can
come up with nations with “elections” that essentially meant the
end of the political enemies of the winners. 1930's Germany, for
example (yes – they were indeed SOCIALIST). Iraq, Cuba, Iran are
other examples.
Even though nearly every politician,
teacher, journalist and citizen believes that our Founders created a
democracy, it is absolutely not true. The Founders knew full well
the differences between a Republic and a Democracy. They repeatedly
and emphatically said that they had founded a Republic.
Article IV Section 4, of the
Constitution "guarantees to every state in this union a
Republican form of government..." Contrary to popular opinion,
the word “democracy” is not mentioned even once in the
Constitution.
Just after the completion and signing
of the Constitution, in reply to a woman's inquiry as to the type of
government the Founders had created, Benjamin Franklin said, "A
Republic, if you can keep it."
Not only have we failed to keep it,
most don't even know what it is.
Republic: The Rule of Law; protection
of the individual's rights vs. Democracy: Mob rule; the suppression
of the individual in favor of the group.
A Republic is representative government
ruled by law (the Constitution). A democracy is direct government
ruled by the majority (mob rule). A Republic recognizes the
inalienable rights of individuals while democracies are only
concerned with group wants or needs (the public good).
Requiring the approval of both the
House and Senate, the Executive branch (President or Governor), the
Courts, and individual jurors (through jury nullification), creating
law in a Constitutional Republic is a slow, deliberate, and often
painstaking process – as it SHOULD be.
Lawmaking in a democracy occurs
quickly, requiring only approval from the majority whim, which is
usually determined by polling and/or voter referendums. In turn,
this allows politicians to blame bad law on the voters. A lynch mob
is a fearsome example of a democracy in action.
A democracy will always fail for one,
very simple reason; eventually, the non-productive learns that it can
elect politicians who make it possible for them to live off the
largesse of the productive. Soon, those who do nothing become a
majority, forcing the politicians to enact ever-increasing tax and
spend policies to meet the growing demands of that majority.
Incentive to produce decreases as taxes increase, leading to more and
more of the producers dropping out and joining the non-producers.
Once the government can no longer fund its legitimate functions and
socialist programs, the democracy collapses, and a dictatorship
necessarily follows. Does the Roman Empire ring any bells?
United States military training
manuals, before World War 2, used to contain the correct definitions
of Democracy and Republic. The following comes from Training Manual
No. 2000-25 published by the War Department, November 30, 1928.
DEMOCRACY:
A government of the masses.
Authority derived through mass meeting
or any other form of "direct" expression.
Results in mobocracy.
Attitude toward property is
communistic--negating property rights.
Attitude toward law is that the will of
the majority shall regulate, whether is be based upon deliberation or
governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or
regard to consequences.
Results in demogogism, license,
agitation, discontent, anarchy.
REPUBLIC:
Authority is derived through the
election by the people of public officials best fitted to represent
them.
Attitude toward law is the
administration of justice in accord with fixed principles and
established evidence, with a strict regard to consequences.
A greater number of citizens and extent
of territory may be brought within its compass. Avoids the dangerous
extreme of either tyranny or mobocracy.
Results in statesmanship, liberty,
reason, justice, contentment, and progress.
These manuals were ordered destroyed,
without reason or explanation, around the same time President
Franklin D. Roosevelt made private ownership of gold illegal. In
very short order, F.D.R., the most popular president of the 20th
century, pillaged nearly half this nation's wealth while convincing
the people it was for their own good, as the price of gold was
increased from $20 per ounce to $35, not long after the gold was
essentially confiscated.
Many of F.D.R.'s policies were
suggested by his right hand man, Harry Hopkins, who said,
"Tax and Tax, Spend and Spend,
Elect and Elect, because the people are too damn dumb to know the
difference.”
James Madison warned of democracy's
dangers with these words: "Democracies have ever been spectacles
of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with
personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been
as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths...”
"We may define a republic to be
... a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly
from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons
holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during
good behavior. It is essential to such a government that it be
derived from the great body of the society, not from an
inconsiderable proportion or a favored class of it; otherwise a
handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a
delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans
and claim for their government the honorable title of republic."
James Madison, Federalist No. 10, (1787)
"A wise man will not leave the
right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the
power of the majority. There is but little virtue in the action of
masses of men." Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
It is up to us to know the difference
between a Republic and a Democracy. It is up to us to teach it to
anyone who will listen. It is up to us to disabuse others of the
notion that America is anything other than a Republic. And above
all, we should be THANKFUL that the Founders were so brilliant in
what they created; the United States of America and the greatest
nation the world has ever known. ~ Hunter
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