Post by The Resister on Oct 23, 2024 4:02:28 GMT
For a couple of years we have been discussing politics, law and history on this board. It wasn't until I got involved in arguing on other boards about what kind of government we live in that it became obvious we haven't addressed this before. So, here is the question and the answer along with my defense of it. Is the United States a "democracy" or is a it a Constitutional Republic?
Let's get this over quickly: The United States is a Republic. This is a quote from an article written by Julie Miller:
"The source of this quotation is a journal kept by James McHenry (1753-1816) while he was a Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention. On the page where McHenry records the events of the last day of the convention, September 18, 1787, he wrote: “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy – A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.” Then McHenry added: “The Lady here alluded to was Mrs. Powel of Philada.” The journal is at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress."
blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2022/01/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it-elizabeth-willing-powel-benjamin-franklin-and-the-james-mchenry-journal/
Article IV Section 4 of the United States Constitution reads as follows:
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion;..."
The Democrats have done everything within their power to make sure NEITHER of those two things were fulfilled by the federal government. But, let's continue on.
The word democracy does not appear in the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation or the Constitution of the United States. But then my critics will pivot and claim we are a "Democratic Republic." And now here is the rest of the story:
The first political party of the United States was the Democratic Republican Party. It started in 1792 and it imploded with the people taking different sides around 1824. Here is one source that verifies my statement:
"The Democratic-Republican Party was one of the first political parties in the United States. The party supported a weak central government in favor of strong states and a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. The party split in the mid-1820s and a faction exists today as the modern Democratic Party."
www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/democratic-republican-party/
Since 1824 the two parties have played musical chairs with political issues and neither resemble the parties that existed in 1824. My point here is that the Democratic Republican idea was tried and it imploded. It didn't work.
Those defending the idea of calling our form of government a democracy pivot to the claim that since we elect representatives by voting, that makes us a democracy and we have a voice in government. Back in the 1980s a tv talk show host, Phil Donahue, had an audience of real life communists in then communist Russia and Americans in another tv station and they were able to interact on screen with each other. Americans tried to convince Russians they were superior because of democracy and that they voted for their elected officials. The communists shot back that they could vote too. So, maybe Americans need to understand what a democracy is:
"government by the people : rule of the majority"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy
And even the wordsmiths make the mistake of saying we are a Republic and a democracy. That is false. The first definition given by dictionaries is that of being ruled by a majority. The United States never was ruled by a majority.
Before the 17th Amendment, the states chose the U.S. Senators of their respective states
The president is not elected by popular vote, but rather by the Electoral College
The filibuster is used to force a super-majority to get bills considered
It takes three quarters of the states to amend the Constitution
We do not convict criminal defendants on the basis of a majority vote. It takes all the jurors to say guilty.
NONE of those features equals a democracy.
Continuing on, the Declaration of Indpendence states:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Those unalienable Rights, bestowed upon us by a Creator (your God, whomever you deem that to be), were codified in the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Those Rights have been declared to be natural, inherent, irrevocable, absolute, preexisting and above the law by our earliest courts.
"The whole of that Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals... t establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of." -- Albert Gallatin, letter to Alexander Addison, 1789
All of the concepts I'm mentioning are repugnant to those calling themselves Democrats, but always trying to offer an olive branch under the guise of working together. What they want is compromise. No, we are not a
democracy.
Do you pledge allegiance to a Democracy? Try reciting the Pledge of Allegiance
Next time I will hopefully be able to list some difference between a Republic and the demoncracy envisioned by the Democratic Socialists that want to own you.
Let's get this over quickly: The United States is a Republic. This is a quote from an article written by Julie Miller:
"The source of this quotation is a journal kept by James McHenry (1753-1816) while he was a Maryland delegate to the Constitutional Convention. On the page where McHenry records the events of the last day of the convention, September 18, 1787, he wrote: “A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy – A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.” Then McHenry added: “The Lady here alluded to was Mrs. Powel of Philada.” The journal is at the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress."
blogs.loc.gov/manuscripts/2022/01/a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it-elizabeth-willing-powel-benjamin-franklin-and-the-james-mchenry-journal/
Article IV Section 4 of the United States Constitution reads as follows:
"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion;..."
The Democrats have done everything within their power to make sure NEITHER of those two things were fulfilled by the federal government. But, let's continue on.
The word democracy does not appear in the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation or the Constitution of the United States. But then my critics will pivot and claim we are a "Democratic Republic." And now here is the rest of the story:
The first political party of the United States was the Democratic Republican Party. It started in 1792 and it imploded with the people taking different sides around 1824. Here is one source that verifies my statement:
"The Democratic-Republican Party was one of the first political parties in the United States. The party supported a weak central government in favor of strong states and a strict interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. The party split in the mid-1820s and a faction exists today as the modern Democratic Party."
www.americanhistorycentral.com/entries/democratic-republican-party/
Since 1824 the two parties have played musical chairs with political issues and neither resemble the parties that existed in 1824. My point here is that the Democratic Republican idea was tried and it imploded. It didn't work.
Those defending the idea of calling our form of government a democracy pivot to the claim that since we elect representatives by voting, that makes us a democracy and we have a voice in government. Back in the 1980s a tv talk show host, Phil Donahue, had an audience of real life communists in then communist Russia and Americans in another tv station and they were able to interact on screen with each other. Americans tried to convince Russians they were superior because of democracy and that they voted for their elected officials. The communists shot back that they could vote too. So, maybe Americans need to understand what a democracy is:
"government by the people : rule of the majority"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy
And even the wordsmiths make the mistake of saying we are a Republic and a democracy. That is false. The first definition given by dictionaries is that of being ruled by a majority. The United States never was ruled by a majority.
Before the 17th Amendment, the states chose the U.S. Senators of their respective states
The president is not elected by popular vote, but rather by the Electoral College
The filibuster is used to force a super-majority to get bills considered
It takes three quarters of the states to amend the Constitution
We do not convict criminal defendants on the basis of a majority vote. It takes all the jurors to say guilty.
NONE of those features equals a democracy.
Continuing on, the Declaration of Indpendence states:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Those unalienable Rights, bestowed upon us by a Creator (your God, whomever you deem that to be), were codified in the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution of the United States. Those Rights have been declared to be natural, inherent, irrevocable, absolute, preexisting and above the law by our earliest courts.
"The whole of that Bill [of Rights] is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals... t establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of." -- Albert Gallatin, letter to Alexander Addison, 1789
All of the concepts I'm mentioning are repugnant to those calling themselves Democrats, but always trying to offer an olive branch under the guise of working together. What they want is compromise. No, we are not a
democracy.
Do you pledge allegiance to a Democracy? Try reciting the Pledge of Allegiance
Next time I will hopefully be able to list some difference between a Republic and the demoncracy envisioned by the Democratic Socialists that want to own you.
