WE ARE A REPUBLIC, NOT A DEMOCRACY

 

Alexander Hamilton is quoted as having said: “Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate government.” I find it easier for most people to grasp the concept of democracy and its inherent fallibility when phrased as James Bovard said in 1992: “democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner while true liberty is a well armed sheep contesting the outcome of the election.”

The framers of the Constitution were so well aware of the historical failures of democracy that they constructed the Constitution to prevent our government from devolving into one. James Madison wrote in the federalist papers 10 that the best way to guard against “factions” is elimination of their cause, which he dismissed as impractical, or to control its effects. He went on to state that we must render a majority faction unable to act as to subjugate the minority. The Constitution is the embodiment of the framers attempt to restrain the government from becoming a democracy. Our Constitution is a charter of negative rights in which the constitutional convention delegates sought to limit any majority faction of the government from usurping the inalienable rights of the individual citizen. Thomas Jefferson wrote: “In questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” Article 4 section 4 of the Constitution: “the United States shall guarantee to every state in the union a republican form of government.”

1)      Democracies always devolve into small numbers of those who become sovereign while the individuals who elected them become subjects.

2)      A majority within this elite or elected class may at any time violate the rights of the minority.

The framers sought to create a republic where the rights of the citizen remain sovereign while the elected officials are perpetually servants of the voters. It is only in a republic where the sheep could never be deemed to be lunch, by the majority, over his god given inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Enter the latest crop of politically correct elites seeking sovereignty over the citizens. To them the Constitutional limitations on federal governmental authority must be circumvented. The ruling majority did, by the slimmest of majorities, subjugate the people of this country to their definition of healthcare reform.

The 17^th amendment to the Constitution was swept into being by progressive politicians agitating a democratic majority to amend the constitution. The effect of this act was to eliminate the chief safeguard for the states against an all powerful central government. Prior to the 17^th amendment the members of the U.S. Senate were elected by the state legislatures that they represented. The lower house was populated by direct vote of the people while the Senate was a body built to protect the state governments from a tyrannical central government.

One of the most damning amendments for the future of the nation was the passage by virtually the same people using the same tactics. The 16^th amendment revised the Constitution to allow the federal government to collect income tax from citizens up to a maximum of 7%. “When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”Benjamin Franklin  

The very idea that people have inalienable rights and that the government is prohibited from infringing on these is fundamental to the U.S. Constitution. The first ten amendments in the form of the bill of rights were added to fortify the document against the very same type of people running our government today. The notion that the product of a man’s labor belonged exclusively to him and that all men are created equal defies the liberal logic required in order to view themselves as entitled elites. For Harry Reid to deny 49 other Senators the right to vote on any measure without his consent means that the 40,000 person majority in his last election to the Senate, effectively over-rule the entire remaining population of the country. The last vestige of republican government in the Senate was destroyed by the same ruling faction when they eliminated the minority’s right to filibuster last month.

Today we see half of Washington D.C. populated by government officials content with the selling legislative votes to the highest bidder among the special interest lobbyists. While the remainder of Washington is made up of those same lobbyists with every incentive to continue buying votes. It is any wonder that the five wealthiest counties in America surround Washington D.C. The tax code has been so perverted through these manipulations that half of the population pay no tax at all while enjoying the unearned rewards of the welfare state at the expense of the foolish few still willing to work and support the parasites.  

When our county was formed the same people who had just fought to secure their own freedom also sought to preserve it for us. Today the Constitution is under attack by some among us who would make us their subjects. They decry it to be a moldy 18^th century document of historical value only without any real practical application today. I say that the republic it defines has worked better than any other form of government ever devised by man, and that I would rather follow the lead of our founding fathers than the self serving bureaucrats and professional politicians we have now.