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To: Liz
A Constitutional democracy?

Is the United States a democracy?
The United States is, indeed, a republic (individual sovereignty), not a democracy. (popular sovereignty) Accurately defined, a democracy is a form of government in which the people decide policy matters directly--through town hall meetings or by voting on ballot initiatives and referendums. A republic, on the other hand, is a system in which the people choose representatives who, in turn, make policy decisions on their behalf. The Framers of the Constitution were altogether fearful of pure democracy. Everything they read and studied taught them that pure 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" (Federalist No. 10).

19 posted on 03/15/2015 8:18:50 AM PDT by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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...pure 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"

So if you want to destroy an enemy nation then simply, over time, "fundamentally transform it" into a democracy.

21 posted on 03/15/2015 8:50:59 AM PDT by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
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To: philman_36

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34 posted on 03/15/2015 12:03:57 PM PDT by Taffini ( Mr. Pippen and Mr. Waffles do not approve and neither do I)
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