Posted on 02/22/2018 8:09:29 PM PST by huckfillary
I've had it with pundits, politicians, and people who should know better that continuously refer to our country as a democracy. The latest such reference was by renowned political commentator Thomas Friedman, who has never been confused with an intelligent person. But he has lots of company among the chattering classes, and even more so from among our so-called educators. At every educational level, teachers, professors, administrators, and even the elite collegiate Boards-of-Directors erroneously refer to the United States as a democracy and, in general, display an overall ignorance of American history and its Founding principles. And unfortunately, our youth (and their parent-underwriters) are the unwitting victims of this ignorance. At one time, our educators and learned elders passed on their wisdom to an eagerly receptive youth with critical thinking skills. Now, our elders can be confidently relied upon to confer their collective stupidity on a submissive, blindly receptive youth.
Repeat after me---the United States is not a democracy. It is a constitutional republic. The Founders, to a man, loathed and feared democracy. This is clearly supported by this selection of excerpts which illustrate why the Founders struggled mightily to forge a Republic rather than a democracy:
James Madison, Federalist Paper No. 10:
In a pure democracy, "there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual."
At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Edmund Randolph said, "... that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy."
John Adams said, "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
Chief Justice John Marshall observed,
"Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos.
In Federalist Paper #10, James Madison gave a comprehensive dissertation on how a Republic would guard against such losses of freedom, in an effort to get our proposed Constitution ratified by the people and their states.
The following are excerpts from Madison's Federalist #10:
... When a majority is included in the faction, the form of popular government ... enables it to sacrifice to its ruling passion or interest both the public good and the rights of other citizens. ...
... Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security and the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. ...
A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.
Unlike today's benighted political hacks, the Founders were deeply immersed in ancient history and the Classics. And they could read the Classics and comment about them fluently in the languages in which the texts were originally written. Latin and Greek were required courses of study in nearly every one-room schoolhouse in nearly every village and hamlet.
I was fortunate to have acquired an early 1700's middle school reader. Today's Millennials would wilt and break out in hives if they had to master the material in this reader. For example, say, schoolmaster to student: "Mr. Penopscot, please stand and recite the declension of the infinitive "to be" in both Latin and Greek. Any mistakes will result in your being responsible for cleaning the common outdoor latrine for a month." The Founding generation knew instinctively that independence and liberty could not be secured and maintained without a clear understanding of these principles.
At one time, nearly every student knew the differences between a democracy v. republic, dependence v. independence, God's Law, natural law, and common law. Today's youth (and most adults) are woefully ignorant in the basics of America's Founding, and the principles underlying the Founding and the Constitution. It's beyond sad---it's downright scary. The Republic can not survive such ignorance.
More than anything, I would really like to see President Trump and Education Secretary DeVos, using every tool at their disposal, rigorously encourage revolutionary curricular changes in our public schools and stop the corruption of our children's minds with cultural marxism. I would like to see the elimination of Common Core, the replacement of one-sided indoctrination with reason and critical thinking skills, and the wholehearted, nationwide restoration and support of our rights of Free Speech at every level of education, public and private.
The president and secretary should require every institution receiving so much as a dime of federal funding to be fully committed to honoring our rights of Free Speech, welcoming and ensuring the safety of those on campuses whose views are at variance with the prevailing campus ideology, and encouraging the open exchange and debate of ideas across the ideological spectrum. If you don't like someone on TV, you don't smash the TV, you change the channel. Similarly, if you don't agree with the views of a speaker on campus, you don't silence the speaker, you just respectfully stay home.
Whatever happened to the priceless maxim of Evelyn Beatrice Hall:
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
It would be easier to put a camel through the eye of a needle than to find a university professor who stands shoulder to shoulder with Evelyn Beatrice Hall.
Until the 17th Amendment, no republic in history denied the lawmaking consent of a component member. Since 1913, the states have been subjected to arbitrary, despotic rule – tyranny. While the Constitution and subsequent laws and court rulings still act on the states, the states have no say in the government of their creation. Left in the wake of the 17A is federalism without a federal government!
This contradiction, this tyranny within an otherwise rational form of government will be our demise. Because of the 17A, the tyranny exerted on the states is fast overwhelming the other component of the American republic – the people.
Great points! The fighting over political spoils at the federal-level has reached the current heights because there is so much potential advantage to be gained. In the early days of our republic there just wasn’t that much at stake as the individual states were sovereign and the US government was small and comparatively weak.
It does consist of negative rights. Those of the government!
The United States of America is a Constitutional Federal Republic.
I grew up in a time when the word democracy was in common use. At some point the Democratic Political Party began to promote Democracy for America. In order for any political party to further socialism for a nation that nation must first become a democracy.
Liberals insist that America is a Democracy because we hold democratic elections.
They ignore the fact that the word “democracy” never appears in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. The Constitution guarantees to every state a Republican Form of Government. Also, the word democracy doesn’t appear in any of the state’s Constitutions. We pledge allegiance to the flag and the Republic that is stands for.
American is no more a democracy than a liberal is a classical liberal.
You are incorrect!
The words in the Constitution guaranteeing a Republican Form of Government with limited powers of legislation have not changed.
We are the Sovereign, not the government. We don't make the rules but we control who does. We have the obligation to elect representatives who will honor their oath to protect our rights from government interference.
The words in the Constitution guaranteeing a Republican Form of Government with limited powers of legislation have not changed.
Therein lays the true beauty of our Constitution. It is the interpretation that is called into question, not the Commerce Clause.
The matter of interpretation is subject to review in a different court of a different day.
Cling to the Constitution and when the courts stray invite them back to the Constitution and if they resist shun them.
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