The truth is, Democracy in it's pure form is highly repressive.  To our freedoms, our founding father's selected a "Constitutionally Limited Republic".  The following article does a fair job in clearing up the current confusions on this issue, and poses some concerns about what we’ve become.  Could it be we've long since given up so much; we don't even know what we've forgotten, lost along the way?  I have to admit that on some level, I suspect this is the case as I don't feel as though my personal rights and freedoms count very much... What would modern America look like if it were true to the original intent to ensure our liberties?  Surely we need much of the governmental involvment both in regulating business to prevent abuses and in providing social programs to aid society.  Yet I feel that our government is out of control; and it's current reverence for 'Democracy' is for no other reason than to allow "majority rule" and the oppression allowed by it.

“US FOUNDED AS A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC - NOT A DEMOCRACY!”

By: SCRIBE
10-19-2004 

… “the United States of America was not founded as a democracy, but as a Constitutionally Limited Republic!” 

“What’s the Difference?” 

“Now, you might ask, so what’s the big deal, republic or democracy; they’re both the same thing, right? Not even close. Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth Edition) defines a ‘Republic’ as “A government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to LAW.” It defines a ‘Democracy’ as “a government by the people; especially rule of the majority”. Therefore, in a ‘Republic’ (especially a Constitutional Republic), the restricted and limited responsibility of government is exercised by elected officers and representatives who MUST govern according to the Law (ie: a Constitution), and who are responsible to the ultimate power and authority, the Citizens who elected them. In a ‘Democracy’, government is not bound by the “law”, but simple “majority rule”; neither do the Citizen’s retain the ultimate power and authority. That's the difference between a Constitutional Republic and a democracy. By the way, it is a HUGE difference!”

…

“Dangers of Democracy” 

…

“The Founders clearly understood the dangers of a democracy. Governor Edmund Randolph of Virginia described the effort to deal with the issue at the Constitutional Convention: “The general object was to produce a cure for the evils under which the United States labored; that in tracing these evils to their origins, every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy.” James Madison, the father of the Constitution, could not have been more explicit in his fear and concern for democracies. “Democracies,” he said, “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 death.” In the Federalist Paper No. 10, “The Union as a Safeguard Against Domestic Faction and Insurrection" (1787), it states “Hence it is that such 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.” And, Alexander Fraser Tytler, in his “The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic”, stated that “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: "From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.””

“In the U.S. War Department's "Official Definition of Democracy", from "Training Manual No. 2000-25", published in 1928 by the U.S. War Department, and authorized by the United States Government, it says "Our Constitutional fathers, familiar with the strength and weakness of both autocracy and democracy, with fixed principles definitely in mind, defined a representative republican form of government. They made a very marked distinction between a republic and a democracy, and said repeatedly and emphatically that they had founded a republic."”

“A Constitutionally Limited Republic” 

“Our nation was founded as a Constitutionally limited Republic. The Founding Fathers were concerned with Liberty and Rights, not democracy. The word democracy does not appear in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. In fact, the Constitution is replete with undemocratic mechanisms. The Electoral College is an obvious example. Small states are represented in national elections with greater electoral power than their populations would warrant in a purely democratic system. Similarly, sparsely populated Wyoming has the same number of senators as heavily populated New York. The result is not democratic; but the Founders knew that smaller states had to be protected against overreaching federal power. The Bill of Rights provides individuals with similar protections against the majority. The First Amendment, for example, is utterly undemocratic. It was designed to protect unpopular speech against democratic fervor. I wonder, would the same politicians and people in the media, who seem so enamored with democracy, be willing to give up their freedom of speech if the majority chose to do so? I seriously doubt it. Yet, majority rule is all that is needed, they believe, to do away with the Second Amendment Right to “Keep and Bear Arms”. “

“Our Founders instituted a Republican system to protect individual rights and property rights from tyranny, regardless of whether the tyrant was a king, a monarchy, a congress, or an unelected mob. They believed that a representative government, restrained by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and divided into three power sharing branches, would balance the competing interests of the population. They also knew that unbridled democracy would lead to the same kind of tyranny suffered by the colonies under King George. In other words, the Founders had no illusions about democracy. Democracy represented unlimited rule by an omnipotent majority, while a Constitutionally limited Republic was seen as the best system to preserve Liberty. The Founders knew that our Unalienable Individual Liberties, such as those enshrined in the Bill of Rights, would be threatened by the "excesses of democracy."”

“These strongly held views regarding the evils of democracy and the benefits of a Constitutional Republic were shared by ALL the Founders. For them, a democracy meant centralized power, controlled by majority opinion, which was up for grabs and therefore completely arbitrary. In contrast, a Republic was decentralized and representative in nature, with the government’s purpose strictly limited by the Constitution to the protection of liberty and private property ownership. They believed the majority should never be able to undermine this principle and that the government must be tightly held in check by constitutional restraints. The difference between a democracy and a republic was simple. Would we live under the age-old concept of the rule of man, or the enlightened rule of law?”

“A Modern Day Democracy equals the Loss of Our Freedoms” 

“This emphasis on ‘democracy’ in our modern political discourse has no historical or Constitutional basis. The transition from republic to democracy was gradual, mostly occurring in the later half of the 20th century. Concerns about war and economic downturns (Events caused by an intrusive government’s failure to follow the binding restraints of the Constitution) allowed majority demands to supersede the rights of the minority. By the end of the 20th century, majority opinion had become the determining factor in all that government does. The rule of law was cast aside, leaving the Constitution a shell of what it once was; a Constitution with rules that guaranteed a Republic with limited federal powers, emphasis on regional (state or county) government, and Protection of Unalienable Rights and Personal Liberty. Our economy, private property ownership, and sound money were severely undermined with the acceptance of the principles of a true democracy. It was the ideas of democracy, and not the principles of liberty, that were responsible for passage of the 16th Amendment. The 16th Amendment imposed upon the American people the much dreaded income tax; which, by the way, was necessary to bring about the modern age of the welfare/warfare state that we suffer under today.”

“Today, the concepts of Liberty, Unalienable Rights, and Private Property Ownership are completely forgotten. The President, Congress, the Courts, and government bureaucrats arbitrarily “legislate” these once cherished ideals away on a daily basis; seeking only the endorsement of the majority. Although the Republic was designed to protect the minority against the dictates of the majority, today we find the reverse. Our Constitutional Republic is no longer recognizable. Unless we demand that our elected representatives return us to the Constitutional Republic left to us by our Founders, (which they bought and paid for with their blood), our Freedoms and Liberties will continue to erode! We may awake one day to a nation where we have NO Rights at all. Are you sure we are a democracy? I would say, look again!”

SCRIBE
© 2004 Northwoods 

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