Posted on 08/21/2002 4:45:35 AM PDT by BADJOE
Republic = good
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics = Communism = bad.
Generations of Americans were brought up being taught communists are our enemies and communists are bad. This is true.
The United States of America is a republic = good.
So one republic (USA) is good and one(USSR)is bad .
Confusing? Maybe it is to our young or was to us when we were young?
I remember when I first learned that our forefathers considered democracy to be as evil a word and a system of governance as we considered communism to be. Wait just a damn minute here. Hadn't I always been taught that democracy was good? And wasn't that pounded into my dear little head every year I had been in school? How can this be?
Well, with a little digging, reading, and some serious thought I learned, that in a democracy you have to accept two things.
#1 The Majority will must prevail.
#2 The Majority is always correct.
So in a democracy if 50.0001% of the VOTING population either works for the government or is on a government subsistence program, and they need more money in the public till, by simple majority vote they can abolish your right to your private property. They can legally steal it all. Sounds like the Democratic party doesn't it? And unfortunately it sounds like an awful lot of today's Republicans. Our forefathers called democracy “The worst form of tyranny. Mob Rule”.
Our forefathers set up our Constitutional Republic to protect the minority from the majority. The only thing that they allowed to even remotely resemble democracy was the election of the US congressman. They were voted in by a very small group, which their district was in comparison to the whole country. Presidential elections were tempered by the presence of the electoral college. You know all the weeping and wailing the left is doing about how undemocratic that is and how it ought to be changed. US senators were appointed by the states’ governors, and ratified by the state house of representatives. A US senator was expected to be a statesman, and look out for the best interest of our country, not HIS state. If a senator screwed up, most folks could get their local state representative by the ear and force them to recall the SOB.
Well the big government folks who want to use your money to buy votes could not stand for this, so they had to sell the American people that this evil thing called democracy was really a good thing. They learned to use dialectics.
And low and behold after years of propagandizing, we got sold the popular election of US senators, the 17th Amendment. It was a successful effort to make democracy, safe in our country. It was also the beginning of the end. As de Toqueville said, “America is great because America is good, but when we learned we could vote ourselves benefits from the public till, it was over.”
We sure as hell learned how to vote ourselves benefits. Have we ceased to be good too?
But wait, we aren't done yet folks. Did you know that in the mid sixties the Kennedy brothers floated the idea that all 100 US senators should be elected democratically at large by the whole country? Thankfully that idea didn't take hold, but the socialists never stop trying to move the power of government farther away from the peoples' control.
By changing the meaning of words the socialists are stealing our property, our country, and our liberty. When all have accepted that Democracy is good and holy, they will simply go back to the original meaning and prove it to you by any dictionary, now matter how old that dictionary is.
I cringe when I hear our politicians sing the praises of Democracy. We need to correct them on the spot. “I pledge allegiance to flag of the United States of America, and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands”. I would not be surprised if within a few years they didn't try to substitute the word democracy for republic in our pledge. The BIG LIE has worked so far.
They may say, “You know what we mean.” I say, “Then say what you mean. Do not corrupt our language.”
Now I have one more word I want to explore. Most folks would agree that Communism is an extreme form of 100% government control. When a communist looks to his immediate right the first thing he sees is a Nazi, so the mildest form of criticism from a communist is to call you a Nazi. Now there are a lot of forms of governance to the right of that. The one that is the most far away is zero percent government control, anarchy. Now there is a word the left must destroy. No problem. Whip out their dialectic talents, organize and fund a movement that advocates the violent destruction of our government to establish their socialist workers’ paradise here and have them call themselves Anarchists. That truly is the definition of organized Anarchy. Now wasn’t that easy? Zero percent government, Free Men, the exact opposite of big government has now been given a bad name.
I want to digress here for a short bit of history. When the new world was discovered, the elite gentry of Europe saw a solution to the problem of religious turmoil, the operating costs of their debtors’ prisons, and a place to get rid of uncouth vagabonds, adventurers and other misfits. Ship them all to the NEW WORLD. Viola!!! Problem solved.
This band of “ne’r do wells” left to their own devices, unfettered by any government (anarchy) dragged themselves up by the boot straps and ultimately dragged the world up with them. These meager beginnings by free men created the most powerful country on this earth. They established a land that is the envy of the world.
During the early years of our country the royalty and elite of Europe were laughing at us all the way. Saying things like “And they think they can govern themselves? Heheheheheheh hahahahahha hohohohoho.
So my friends, the truth is these United States were settled, explored, and civilized by benign anarchy. Where small populations established governance, anyone not liking their rules, simply picked up and moved on to greener free pastures. Go West Young Man GO West. Today there is no physical West to go to. We must go west intellectually and philosophically. Let us not stifle that moving West here on the Free Republic.
Thomas Jefferson said, “That governs best that governs least” An idea expressed by many still today. Carried to its logical conclusion you reach the point where there is no more less governance to be had.
Let no man get away with giving Republic or Zero government (anarchy) a bad name.
Let no man give democracy a good name.
We must take our language back. Words have meanings and they must mean the same thing to all who hear them.
To spend a delightful evening exploring this in a very entertaining way, I recommend you go rent Lerner and Lowe’s “Paint Your Wagon”, a musical, with Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin. It is the early American west at its best.
Nah. They'll likely ignore this thread.
So just "out" them now.
Preach it brother.
However, I think our kids are being taught that a "little bit" of socialism is a good thing. We need to disabuse them of that idea too.
Agree-eeed. How about teaching people how to think (which is closely related to respecting the language)? Think about, for example, why communism was the 'ism' of choice in a self-proclaimed 'socialist' state. Why atheism was the state religion there. And why generations were miserable there. And why tens (hundreds?) of millions were murdered by the state there for the crime of thinking for themselves. And why free enterprise didn't flourish there when ostensibly given the opportunity (hint: free enterprise requires a moral foundation -- true liberty -- in order to function at its best and benefit a people).
Great piece, BadJoe! Bump!
For ever speeder, there is someone complaining about them. We have a natural disdain for rules being broken by OTHER people.
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