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Freedom Is Much More Important Than Democracy
American Thinker ^ | 4 Sep, 2026 | J.B. Shurk

Posted on 09/04/2026 5:50:06 AM PDT by MtnClimber

Democracy invites despotism. When understood as majority rule, democracy means that fifty-one of every hundred citizens can have their way with the other forty-nine.

“But I want to keep my possessions, weapons, and children.” Too bad, the majority have decided to redistribute your property to those lazy bums over there, disarm you before you can do anything about it, and indoctrinate your children in public schools, so that they learn to resent you and love the State.

Democracy is dangerous without guardrails. Unless a society has a strong sense of moral virtue that fosters personal discipline, duty, and honor, base selfishness becomes the driving motivation behind all political action. Unless certain constitutional protections exist to safeguard each individual’s inviolable rights, democratic majorities devour those rights whenever expedient.

This should surprise no-one. Political philosophers such as Hobbes and Locke described humans’ pre-government “state of nature” as a chaotic, violent clash of self-interest. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” regards self-interest as the engine of free markets. Consequently, it is easy to understand why forms of democracy that are unshackled from both moral and constitutional restraints prompt a society to descend back into a state of nature in which humanity’s worst impulses are again indulged.

When Western leaders speak adoringly of “our democracy,” citizens should prepare to guard their freedoms. My goodness, there is nothing inherently virtuous about democracy. North Korea’s Kim Jong Un runs the most repressive regime on the planet, but his country is known officially as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea! China’s Xi Jinping is the general secretary of the oppressive Chinese Communist Party, but his nation remains officially the People’s Republic of China! Dictatorships around the globe claim to govern in the name of the people.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: leftism
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To: GingisK

“Democracy” is never even mentioned, not once, in the Declaration of Independence. Nor the Constitution, nor the Bill of Rights. Weird, huh?


41 posted on 09/04/2026 7:31:17 AM PDT by Freedom4US
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To: Vermont Lt

Well said!

Also, articulated well by Jordan Maxwell. He did a poignant piece on the “Statue of Liberty” versus the “Statue of Freedom”.


42 posted on 09/04/2026 7:31:31 AM PDT by C210N
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To: Merrick

What if idiotic people elect Representatives to make laws and those laws crush liberty and create an environment where the people become even more idiotic (or more idiots are imported)?

It all comes down to incentives. As long as we have a system where leaders are elected for a short period of time and are able to amass huge sums of money on the largess of the public treasury, they will never have any allegiance to the people they “represent”.

They have no “buy in” to the long term success of the people they represent. As long as they can cook the books for 10 or 15 years to keep getting elected, engage in enough graft and corruption to set themselves and their children up for life, what does it matter what happens to the people?


43 posted on 09/04/2026 7:37:39 AM PDT by nitzy
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To: MtnClimber

If Britain, Holland, and Sweden can be monarchies and democracies, it should be possible to describe the US as a republic and a democracy. If you have the vote, that could be due more to democracy than to the Founder’s original design.

But democracy and freedom are both in trouble. Congress is ineffective. Bureaucracies and judges make most of the decisions and none of them are very much in favor of individual liberty.


44 posted on 09/04/2026 7:40:56 AM PDT by x
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To: Dartoid

Claiming a right exists is as consequential as reciting a Harry Potter spell. It is of absolutely no consequence on it’s own.

As a 3rd world leftist is electing rulers to pass laws to take your guns, throw you in jail for thought crimes and redistribute your money to brown people....what you need to do is take your pocket constitution out, hold it in front of you like a magic wand and recite the magic words “Shall not be infringed”....

I’m sure they will leave you alone and respect your rights.


45 posted on 09/04/2026 7:43:13 AM PDT by nitzy
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To: MtnClimber

That why America is a REPUBLIC not a democracy...


46 posted on 09/04/2026 7:58:52 AM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA "by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: Merrick
You signed the agreements for your phone.

You have no choice.

Extortion.

47 posted on 09/04/2026 8:00:55 AM PDT by HIDEK6 (God bless Donald Trump)
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To: TTFX
How do Americans bring about radical decentralization?

There's lots of existing notions which make sense - return to sound money, scatter federal agencies around the USA and depopulate Washington DC, make states responsible for funding and adminstration of welfare and retirement programs. Greatly reduce the power of FBI over local police forces, etc...

Here's one simple, focused thing Conservatives can focus on: pass "Inverse Condemnation" laws, which used to be common in the USA before the 1960s (which were, of course, removed by progressives)

Under 5th Amendment takings laws, we all know that government can only take property under clear eminent domain declarations and with just compensation. As part of this, many states and cities once had laws declaring government LIABLE to private property owners for their failure to preserve civil order. If a riot occurs and your store is burned - government must pay. If a homeless camp in front of your home or store, and you lose revenue - government can be sued for monetary damages.

such laws were common in the USA prior to the 1960s. Truly make local government financially responsible to preserve public order.

There are many changes that could be made, but this would change the political landscape of blue cities immediately.

48 posted on 09/04/2026 8:40:07 AM PDT by PGR88
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To: HIDEK6

You certainly do have a choice. There are plenty of phones out there without GPS and internet access. They’ll always know the cell tower you’re pinging, and the numbers you receive and call. You don’t mean you have *no* choice. You mean the choice is too hard for *you* to make.

We all make choices. And you’re responsible for the choices you make, even if you think you didn’t have a good choice.


49 posted on 09/04/2026 10:10:52 AM PDT by Merrick (It's a car - that runs on water, man!)
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To: nitzy

What if the sky was purple? Yeah - what’s your point? People make shitty decision not only at the ballot box but everywhere else in life as well. That doesn’t change a single thing I said.

Wanna live on an island? No one’s stopping you.


50 posted on 09/04/2026 10:12:28 AM PDT by Merrick (It's a car - that runs on water, man!)
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To: BobL

So you slowly gave away more and more and more of your freedoms and *now* you’re calling foul?

Look - I’m not happy with where we are, either. But we all got here together.

Without going into too many details, for jobs I’ve had in the past, I wasn’t ALLOWED to take my phone to certain buildings unless it had a removeable battery and you took it out before you left your “known work location” and didn’t put it back into the phone until you either returned to that location or another location where you were allowed to have a battery in your phone.

You can guess without too much effort who might have rules like that. Even those “folks” relaxed those rules when phones stopped having removeable batteries - and when cameras that could recognize you or your car started popping up everywhere.

But, and this is just the way it is, you willing bought into all of this until you finally got to the point it bothered you. The frog in the pan of water suddenly noticing it actually got hotter. You have yourself and everyone else to blame.

I was bitching about this 30 years ago. But I didn’t stop accepting the user agreements on my nice new phones. So, there you go.


51 posted on 09/04/2026 10:20:15 AM PDT by Merrick (It's a car - that runs on water, man!)
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To: Merrick
What if the sky was purple?

The difference between your "What if" and my "What if" is that yours is make believe and mine is reality. The "what if" I proposed is happening in real time as we speak. And the fact that it is, is why "democracy" or "Republicanism" or "constitutionalism" or however you want to describe our form of government....is insufficient for preserving liberty.

I have no desire to live on an island. I only want to inform people who still believe in this experiment in self government, that their religion is false.

52 posted on 09/04/2026 10:53:01 AM PDT by nitzy
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To: MtnClimber

Check

Democracy means that fifty-one of every hundred citizens can have their way with the other forty-nine.

There is no argument about that no matter what they want to call it.


53 posted on 09/04/2026 11:41:04 AM PDT by Vaduz (NEVER TRUST A DEMOCRAT)
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To: dfwgator

A Republic is a well armed sheep contesting the vote.


54 posted on 09/04/2026 12:55:04 PM PDT by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA!)
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To: bert

A Democracy is a national vote for President.

Our Republic uses the Electoral College.

Big difference. A Drmocracy would suck.


55 posted on 09/04/2026 1:08:10 PM PDT by Fledermaus (Free Republic is now all Trump hatred all the time from a handful of "Me, Me, Me" babies. )
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