Posted on 02/04/2018 1:17:44 PM PST by huckfillary
The word Republic has all but disappeared from our political lexicon. It has erroneously been replaced by Democracy. The Founders must be turning over in their graves. They had nothing but contempt for democracy. They sought to, and did, create a constitutional republic, but not before doing their homework.
Unlike today's politicians, talking heads, and academics, the Founders had an acute, in-depth, and nuanced understanding of history and political systems. Prior to the 1787 constitutional convention, James Madison undertook a comprehensive study of every known republic in recorded history to ensure that the Founders didn't repeat their mistakes. The Founders as a group were also well studied in democracies. They knew that every democracy in recorded history disintegrated in a pyre of chaos, tyranny, and mob violence.
The word democracy does not appear in any of the Founding documents: the Declaration, the Articles of Confederation, nor the Constitution. For good reason: the Founders had no intention of creating a democracy. They wanted to fashion a mixed republic of constitutionally infused checks and balances which incorporated elements monarchy, aristocracy, and popular consent. Monarchy would manifest itself in the Office of President, aristocracy the senate, and popular consent, the House of Representatives. The checks and balances are both vertical and horizontal. The division of the government into the executive, legislative, and judicial constitutes one form of checks and balances. The "division of labor" among the federal, state, and local levels of government constitutes the other. This division of labor was made law in Article 1, Section 8, and the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution.
The Founders drew much of their inspiration and thought from Baron Montesquieu's "Spirit of the Laws." Montesquieu (1689-1755), a Frenchman, was a political philosopher and man of letters. He is one of the central figures of the Enlightenment.
Published in 1748, the Spirit of the Laws is a comparative study of three types of government: republic, monarchy, and despotism. Montesquieu held that government powers should be separated and balanced to guarantee individual rights and freedom. It is considered one of the most influential political studies of all time. The Founders would agree, and some 40 years later, would incorporate much of Montesquieu's masterpiece in the founding of our Republic.
I'll bet very few Americans can cite the differences between a republic and a democracy, or care for that matter. But even high-level politicians and prime-time political commentators continue to refer to "our democracy" rather than "our republic." Spread the good word---we don't live in a democracy; it's a republic, thank you.
The fact that this level of corruption is being exposed is a sign that the system is resilient and still working. The founders did not delude themselves into thinking they were building a utopia, and the country’s endured far harder times.
Because the common use of “democracy” is that of Marx, which is that democracy is the political version of a communist economic system. When they speak of “our Democracy” or “democratic ideals”, they refer to the people’s ability to vote themselves money from the public treasury—which, of course, is the well-known method by which freedom actually dies.
Pure democracy = mob rule.
As has been said, it’s 3 wolves and 2 sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Our Republic is a blessing bestowed upon the American people by the most enlightened group of men in history. We owe it to them and to our children to protect what they created.
Can’t call us a democracy any longer since the Democrats (yeah right) declared jihad on democracy.
The Republic ended on Usurpation Day when all of appointed and elected neglected their oath to uphold the Constitution.
Barack Obama is NOT a natural born citizen.
Amen. And most of them knew that GOD was in ultimate control. So it’s vital we remain close to God, or else all hell breaks lose as we’ve caught glimpses of these past few years...
I heard Laura Ingraham use the phrase representative democracy the other day.../rolleyes
Democracy is a totalitarian manifestation. Not a form of freedom. Two imams and a hillary slut deciding who gets to have the clitorectomy.
We were a constitutional republic with a VERY LIMITED democratic process to elect our representatives.
Now we’re a banana republic with no rule of law.
Well, a lot of times the host will be trying to read the prompter and the director or producer is babbling away in their earpiece - so I’m sure she knows that ‘representative democracy’ makes no sense - she probably just misspoke.
The meaning of the words democracy and republic are not as precise and delimiting as some want to believe. Both words need modifiers to accurately describe any form of government.
We have the wonderful Islamic Republic of Iran. The Democratic Republic of North Korea. The Peoples Republic of China and other fine republics round the world.
The most basic definition of a republic is that there is no monarchy. We need far more than one word to gave a basic definition of any government.
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.
This was lost after the disaster at Appomattox.
Perhaps the most thorough, well-founded and complete explanation of how the Framers of America's Constitution of the United States of America "constituted" a form of self-government which was--in the words of Benjamin Franklin, "A Republic. . . if you can keep it. . . . " can be found in John Quincy Adams's "Jubilee" Address, delivered, by invitation of the New York Historical Society, in New York City in April 1839. That Jubilee Address magnificently explained the reasons for the Framers' choice of republic over that of a democracy.
If you want to have handy for constitutionally-illiterate Progressives who may call this a "democracy," then you want to read that Address.
Today, in 2018, when confronted with a decision between individual freedom and slavery, otherwise known as liberty and tyranny, Americans who prefer freedom must be armed with ideas and principles which are "self-evident" and plain. Otherwise, they cannot fend off the onslaught of the "counterfeit ideas" of Progressive ideologues.
When America's Founders and Framers of their Constitution wanted to convince ordinary farmers and citizens of the merits of a written "People's" Constitution to limit the powers of those to whom they entrust the powers of government, they published and circulated 85 essays, known as THE FEDERALIST.
It's time for citizens, once again, to examine those strong and clear words of Madison Hamilton, and Jay. They are just as clear for today's audience as they were then. Circulate the following excerpts to your friends. Even the least politically savvy will "get" Madison's meaning, especially in light of the power grab now going on in Washington. After all, THE FEDERALIST was the Framers' authoritative explanation of their Constitution, and directed by the Board of Visitors of the University of Virginia in 1825 to be used as the text for its law school in its studies of "the general principles of liberty and the rights of man," and said by Jefferson to "constitute 'the general opinion of those who framed, and of those who accepted the Constitution of the U.S., on questions as to its genuine meaning.'":
"The house of representatives... can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny." - Federalist Papers, No. 57, February 19, 1788
"The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust." - Federalist Papers, No. 57, February 19, 1788
"Such will be the relation between the House of Representatives and their constituents. Duty gratitude, interest, ambition itself, are the cords by which they will be bound to fidelity and sympathy with the great mass of the people." - Federalist Papers, No. 57, February 19, 1788
"If it be asked what is to restrain the House of Representatives from making legal discriminations in favor of themselves and a particular class of the society? I answer, the genius of the whole system, the nature of just and constitutional laws, and above all the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America, a spirit which nourishes freedom, and in return is nourished by it." - Federalist Papers, No. 57, February 19, 1788
"An elective despotism was not the government we fought for; but one in which the powers of government should be so divided and balanced among the several bodies of magistracy as that no one could transcend their legal limits without being effectually checked and restrained by the others." - Federalist Papers, No. 58, 1788
"This power over the purse may, in fact, be regarded as the most complete and effectual weapon with which any constitution can arm the immediate representatives of the people, for obtaining a redress of every grievance, and for carrying into effect every just and salutary measure." - Federalist Papers, No. 58, 1788
"The propensity of all single and numerous assemblies (is) to yield to the impulse of sudden and violent passions, and to be seduced by factious leaders into intemperate and pernicious resolutions." - Federalist Papers, No. 62, February 27, 1788
"Every new regulation concerning commerce or revenue; or in any manner affecting the value of the different species of property, presents a new harvest to those who watch the change and can trace its consequences; a harvest reared not by themselves but by the toils and cares of the great body of their fellow citizens. This is a state of things in which it may be said with some truth that laws are made for the few not for the many." - Federalist Papers, No. 62, February 27, 1788
"It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood; if they be repealed or revised before they are promulgated, or undergo such incessant changes that no man who knows what the law is today can guess what it will be tomorrow." - Federalist Papers, No. 62, February 27, 1788
Note particularly the following words of wisdom from Federalist No. 63, and take heart. You are doing what you were meant to do when you speak out on intrusions on your liberty. According to Madison:
"As the cool and deliberate sense of the community ought, in all governments, and actually will, in all free governments, ultimately prevail over the views of its rulers; so there are particular moments in public affairs when the people, stimulated by some irregular passion, or some illicit advantage, or misled by the artful misrepresentations of interested men, may call for measures which they themselves will afterwards be the most ready to lament and condemn. In these critical moments, how salutary will be the interference of some temperate and respectable body of citizens, in order to check the misguided career, and to suspend the blow meditated by the people against themselves, until reason, justice, and truth can regain their authority over the public mind?" - Federalist Papers, No. 63, 1788
yes indeed, the 17th amendment did a great deal of damage
She is correct.
I appear to not exist.
And neither is the Cubanadian.
I just explained why she’s not correct
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