Democracy or Republic?
A republic, if you can keep it.
We should begin by defining Democracy:
government by the people : rule of the majority
A republic is defined as:
a form of government in which the power belongs to a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by the leaders and representatives elected by those citizens to govern according to law
We should next ask, “Is the United States of America a democracy?” The founders created a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy. Benjamin Franklin was asked by Elizabeth Willing Powel: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” He replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” He was signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution and said, “A republic.” He ought to know! We were not meant to be a democracy. We do democratically elect representatives to the legislature as well as the president, but we are supposed to be a republic as defined in our Constitution.
The Constitution in Article IV also guarantees to every state a Republican form of government:
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.
We are supposed to be a republic where we democratically elect representatives to govern according to the law. Every law that the legislature enacts is supposed to be within the confines of the Constitution.
Article 1 of the Constitution gives all law-making power to Congress. Section 8 of Article 1, which we all but ignore, limits the subjects that Congress is allowed to make laws concerning. Congress making laws about subjects not enumerated in Section 8 is not allowed by the Constitution; those subjects are reserved to the States and the people, which is explicitly articulated in the ninth and tenth amendments (two more things totally ignored!).
In a republic, our representatives are to “govern according to the law [ultimately the Constitution].” We the People have allowed the U.S. government to write and enforce laws that are outside of their jurisdiction meaning that we have in actuality devolved into a de facto democracy; something never intended. By this I mean that we are now basically majority rule/mob rule unconstrained by the rule of law. Since this has happened, consider this quote from Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee who was a Scottish advocate, judge, writer, and historian who was a Professor of Universal History and of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Edinburgh:
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.
With our staggering $38 trillion in debt, I think we have passed that part where the majority votes to elect the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury. The collapse is coming.
The Democrats basically speak into existence that we are a democracy. A lie told often enough and loudly enough is eventually accepted as true. Consider Senator Chuck Schumer’s campaign web site:
Our democracy is under attack. From Donald Trump’s big lie about a rigged election that incited the Capitol insurrection to Jim Crow-style voter suppression laws passed by state legislatures, there is a concerted, organized attempt to sow distrust in our elections and stop people from voting.
Despite Republicans trying to stand in the way, Chuck Schumer has never backed down in the fight to save our democracy. He continues to lead the fight to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, get dark money out of politics, secure our elections from Republican attacks and ensure every eligible American is able to cast their ballot.
How about a few quotes from Congresswoman, and now former (Praise God!) House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi’s official congressional web site:
Earlier this month, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi discussed the urgent need to protect American democracy… Every day seems to bring a fresh blow to our democracy… it’s going to take all of us to save our democracy… That is essential to saving our democracy… They may be okay with that and the fact that he’s harming our democracy…
That is only a very small sample from just one page on her web site. It seems to me that these two that swear to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America ought to know that very Constitution guarantees a republican form of government, not a democracy. They know, then lie to us anyway.
In this Constitutional Republic, we do democratically elect the members of the House and Senate. That means that the winner of the majority of the votes cast wins the election. When casting votes for bills in both houses of Congress a majority of votes cast is required to pass a bill. But that is not quite true, is it? Consider the Senate filibuster.
The current rules for the filibuster allow the minority (41 of 100 Senators) to actually decide what can come up for a vote to be passed by the majority. This is not democracy (see the definition above); this is a tyranny of the minority. How is it that the Democrats that just caused the longest government shutdown in U.S. history using the filibuster where a minority of Senators prevented the passage of a bill to open the government that a majority of the Senators supported? And when they did that, they said that they were “saving our democracy.” Again, democracy is “rule of the majority,” yet the minority seemed to rule. Do words mean anything?
Our Constitution was ratified it 1788 and the following year it went into effect with the election of Congress and President George Washington. Congress has now been operating for 236 years and it is only a rather recent thing for this minority to prevent a vote as they did to cause the longest government shutdown ever. The rules for the filibuster have changed many times over those 236 years. The filibuster is not in the Constitution; it is merely a rule that the Senate has adopted and changes from time to time. The first time that this 60-vote threshold became part of the equation was back in 1970, 181 years after the Senate came into existence. It wasn’t always this way.
Within the Constitutional boundaries, the majority should rule except for the few cases that the Constitution itself requires a supermajority. The Senate is to debate bills; Senators supporting or opposing a bill get to make their case to the other Senators before a vote is scheduled. The point is that the minority is to be heard but the majority is to ultimately prevail. The majority may change their mind once the minority has had a chance to make their case; but they may not. In any case, the minority should never be able to obstruct the will of the majority.
For an example of how the filibuster has worked in the past consider Mr. Smith Goes to Washington:
The minority should be heard. Mr. Smith was that minority and he was heard. It should cost something to delay the vote, to extend debate, and Mr. Smith paid a price when he spoke so long that he passed out. In today’s world, they just say they want to filibuster which can impede progress and cause a government shutdown that hurt millions of people and cost the economy billions of dollars. We need to go back to how Mr. Smith had to do it! The rules of the Senate change over time. Remember, the sixty vote impediment to actually voting on a bill only came into existence in 1970; the senate operated for 181 years without it, yet we consider it normal today that 41 Senators, a minority, can gum up the works. And then, we call it democracy meaning majority rule.
Why bring this up now that the government shutdown is over? The shutdown ended but we will be in the same predicament again at the end of January only to face the possibility of doing this all over again. A definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. We are insane; at least the Senate is!
Some Republicans argue against ending this 60-vote rule because they are afraid of what will happen when Republicans are out of power. That is called a “prevent defense” which doesn’t always work out as planned. Go on offense. Do the right things for We the People and earn the right to stay in power. Senators and Members of Congress should convince the voters that they are worthy of their votes by serving them properly and within the confines of the Constitution.
John Wesley said, “What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.” When we let things go on for too long, they become the new normal. Unfortunately, humans, with a life expectancy of only around eighty years, have a short memory. We quickly adopt new normals and then will fight for them as if that is how it has always been. How many other things are we guilty of adopting and then, even though they are wrong, continue to do just because that is how it has always been?
I’ve got one! Consider Christmas. Christmas was once illegal in America. What!? It’s true. We consider it normal but that wasn’t always the case. Consider my post last year: Have you considered this: Christmas? That post delves into the true story of the birth of the Messiah and contrasts that with our modern traditions.
“A Republic, if you can keep it.” That was Benjamin Franklin’s answer. If he were to come back today and examine the current state of America, he would probably ask, “How long did the Republic last?” What he would really be saying is, “I see that you couldn’t keep it.”
There are many more things that we consider normal that are not. I address those in my book Blessings & Curses: if my people…
This book reveals who we are, where we are, and what we can expect in the near future. Those are big claims. Get your copy today at Amazon and test those claims!
Visit the book’s website here: www.blessingsandcursesbook.com
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