"The first requisite of a good citizen in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight." ~ Theodore Roosevelt
Wait a minute...republic? Hasn't every politician for the past 30 years talked about our great democracy, spreading democracy, etc.?
They have, and they do it to make us feel more powerful. We live in a republic, NOT a democracy. In fact our Founding Fathers were dead set against democracy.
Understanding the difference between democracy and republicanism is the key to preserving the republic of the United States. So many want to believe and push the idea that America is a democracy. They continue to put polls out to write laws and think they can govern us under popular opinion. So, if we look to our Founding Fathers for the answer and some other great leaders of history, maybe we can see why the United States of America was not established as a democracy, but rather a republic.
Alexander Hamilton, "Federalist Papers": We are a Republican Government, Real liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of democracy...it has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.
John Adams: "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
Thomas Jefferson: "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%."
Most of us learned this in 2nd grade. So why do politicians not know what our form of government is?
The fact is they are not as stupid as one would think. They purposefully call it a democracy to make us feel empowered, to make us forget about the electoral college and the Supreme Court's appointment of Bush.
They do not want us to focus on the fact that the Patriot Act stripped us of most of our power.
And it would seem they have been successful.
There are those who will argue a republic is a 'kind of a democracy' when nothing could be further from the truth.
A republic exists to guarantee the rights of the minority.
A good example is Proposition 8. California has empowered its citizens to give them a direct vote with this system. This is democracy in action. And thus, the majority voted away the rights of the minority.
I won't pretend that our republic is anything but a failure. Our politicians do not represent our interests.
Despite what was in the best interest of the country and the world, Nancy Pelosi refused to impeach our war criminals. She felt it would be 'disruptive.' Did she ever consider that all criminals prosecuted disrupt some lives? Yet we still put black men in jail on minor drug charges every day. Nancy, this is disruptive as well. Were you actually representing the people you would focus on that injustice, but alas you are not.
While food stamps were being cut, Chuck Schumer was too worried about the Olympians getting the brand of yogurt they wanted to bother with the poor.
With the gerrymandering and other schemes, our republic is completely corrupted. They represent only the interest of big business and that goes for the majority of both parties.
Not only are we not a great democracy, we are a failed republic, and it is time voters changed that before we have no power at all.
The power to mould the future of the Republic will be in the hands of the journalists of future generations. -- Joseph Pulitzer
Join me.