Posted on 09/29/2015 5:01:57 PM PDT by cotton1706
Most Of Us Have A Flawed Understanding Of Our Government, History Scholar Says
Ignorance can be problematic for a society that depends upon its citizenry, and depending on citizens is just what the structure of government in the United States does.However, there’s a large asterisk when it comes to understanding our governance, says history scholar Will Butts.
“The United States is not now, and never has been a democracy,” he says. “From its very beginnings, the United States has had a republican form of government. But the words republic and republican, in their governmental context, have become unfamiliar, where they were once commonly used and well understood.”
Butts is author of “This Republic: Illuminating Republican Government” (ThisRepublic.net), which addresses the differences between a democracy and a republic. He explores the subject via the extensive writings of founding father and second president of the United States, John Adams.
“If everyone made decisions about everything, and if mob rule held sway in our policies, then we would have a democracy, but that is not our system,” Butts says. “The law is the ultimate authority in our country, not mob rule. And laws are made by bodies called legislatures, whose members are elected by the people. This is republican government, not democracy.”
Butts reviews the facets of our republic and why it’s important to understand the true character of our system.
• John Adams wrote: “The preservation of liberty depends on the intellectual and moral character of the people. As long as knowledge and virtue are diffused generally among the body of a nation, it is impossible they should be enslaved.”
“Founding fathers like Adams thought for us all, and thought well into the future, using the collected experience of the past,” Butts says.
(Excerpt) Read more at palmbeachlwp.com ...
No worries - the Dept of Education with NEA and entertainment industry (in that order) have it covered.
You = “Da Man”.
Thanks!
....and to the Republic for which it stands.....
It used to be a Republic, not really sure what it is now.
Uniparty Rules.
Dictatorship punctuated by short, scheduled periods of democracy.
That depends, do Democracies allow foreigners to vote with impunity?
It’s called an oligarchy.
>>That depends, do Democracies allow foreigners to vote with impunity?<<
democrats allow illegal aliens to vote with whomever they want!
God no. Its a kleptocracy.
It would be undemocratic not to..../s
Well, no. The United States was founded as, and once WAS, a republic.
I’m not sure what it is now.
Actually, I believe we have a kakocracy.
Kakocracy. Hmmmm. Yeah, it might have descended to that level.
Dumbmocracy. Ignorant stupid voter enabled.
It’s a banana republic now.
It’s an IDIOCRACY, has been since 1989.
NO.
And I am always irritated by the total ignoramuses who embarrass the rest of us by asserting nonsense.
Three things during Wilson’s Administration:
1. Federal Income Tax
2. The 17th Amendment
3. The Federal Reserve,
turned our nation into a ‘national democracy’.
States became just scenery for the tourists.
The last threads of actual citizen participation are the 2nd Amendment and term limits (whether local, state, or national) If those go, its finally the USSA.
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