American Patriots are once again resisting an oppressive government.
Join the Resistance! Resist like it's 1776!
No American president since Ronald Reagan has understood and espoused the founding fathers' principles of limited government and even he GREW the government. With the bailouts and stimulus packages of Bush, Obama and Congress the camel's back has been broken. The American people have had enough! Tea party protesters are fighting back against 100 years of degradation of America's limited government foundation as expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
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DEMOCRACY OR REPUBLIC
Is America a democracy or a republic, and does it really matter?
The word "democracy" is today used with love and affection to refer to America and other free countries around the world - and rightly so. When people use the word "democracy" they are usually referring to concepts of freedom, free speech, representation, the right to vote, etc. These ideas are part of what makes America and other free countries great. However, the true definiton of the word "democracy" has been lost over the years.
Would it suprise you that Thomas Jefferson and other founding fathers often spoke out vehemently against democracy? How could that be? Surely they weren't anti-freedom!? Here are a few quotes:
- "Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide." - John Adams
- "Real liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of democracy." - Alexander Hamilton
- “A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” – Thomas Jefferson
The definitions of democracy and republic have much in common, mostly that each grants power to the people through representatives. But there is one very critical difference! Democracy, by definition, is the rule of the majority, where a republic is the rule of law. The only thing about America that is truly democratic would be when we vote on a referendum - the referendum is passed or defeated based on the majority of votes. Everything else about America is set up under the principles of a Republic.
A few examples: An accused person can only be freed or convicted by a unanimous vote, a majority (democratic) jury vote of seven to five isn't good enough! The American people vote for president, but it is the state electors who decide who will be president. This ensures that California and New York do not dominate every single election. Otherwise most of middle America wouldn't need to even show up. We may not always be happy with the results of the Electoral College, but it ensures that fairness rules in our Republic, rather than even a small majority being able to trample on the voices of others.
Our freedom of speech, which is so often spoke of as a principle of democracy, is actually UN-democratic! Your inalienable right to free speech, protected by the First Amendment, is a right possessed by every single citizen regardless of what they want to say, or whether they belong to any minority. In a truly democratic system the majority could easily suppress any opinions that they didn't want to hear. We put up with and even protect the rights of communists, racists and others because our un-democratic system demands that the rights of minorities must be upheld even when the majority disagrees. To do otherwise would represent a loss of freedom - freedom is only protected through our republican ideals of defending minority rights.
A final example: The U.S. House of Representatives is an example of a democratic assembly. Each state sends a number of representatives in proportion to the state population - California has 53 and North Dakota has 1. In contrast, the Senate is an example of a republican assembly. Each state has two representatives regardless of the population of the state. Again, a majority of the population cannot dominate the minority in the U.S. senate. This "check and balance" is an integral part of our Republic and would not be present if America were truly a democracy.
But most important is that only a republic protects the rights of people through the rule of law, a true democracy will trample on the rights of the minority or any group that loses it's voice in the government. Our founding fathers specifically and deliberately created a republic, and spoke against a democracy for this very reason. Article IV, Section IV of the U.S. Constitution guarantees a republican form of government. In fact, the word "Democracy" is not used one single time in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or the constitutions of ANY of the 50 states.
Only in a REPUBLIC are the rights and liberty of the people truly protected. It's ok to speak of democratic principles of freedom and representation in connection with the United States, but we must remember that our country is first and foremost a Republic. We must protect our country from the "bad" aspects of democracy, which lead to socialism, and celebrate our Republican government!
Some discussions of the differences betwen a Democracy and a Republic:
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