On her 1/14/2021 show Rachel Maddow said that the very tragic contamination of the Flint, Michigan water supply was due to somebody (I guess Governor Snyder) “giving up on democracy.” She was off by more than two centuries. The United States of America gave up on democracy when it ratified a republican form of government.
The crimes Snyder committed would not have been possible under a real democracy because the people of Flint Michigan would have been running the city government and the people of Michigan would have been running the state and the people of the United States would have been running the country.
Maddow’s mistake is understandable, she is only telling us what she has been taught, but nevertheless she was wrong. And the false lesson has been internalized by very nearly all Americans, particularly most of our historians. But nevertheless our government is a republic not a democracy. And if we do not replace our republican government with a real democracy then we will not defeat global warming.
I know, I know, you know better. But explain this. Our system of government, our democracy as Maddow calls it, knowingly, deliberately, willingly mistreats seven hated groups of Americans: not-white, not Christian, not male, not heterosexual not well-to-do, not native-born, and the disabled. Taken together these seven groups make up the great majority of our population. So, if America were a real democracy instead of an imaginary one, or even a fake one. these seven groups would have long ago used their majority power (votes) to change the laws of our nation so their seven groups would be treated at least as well as other groups—but it hasn’t happened. Why not? Were all these people fools, or illiterate, or don’t mind the mistreatment?
And the Constitution itself agrees with me. Nowhere in that document does it mention any form of that word.. “democracy.” But in Article 4 Section 4 (I think) it mentions “republic” twice. It says that the duty of the national government is to make sure that every state in the union had to have a republican form of government. So, where do Rachel and all her fans, I am one, come up with the idea that America is a democracy. All of the tragic parts of our history in which our people have been mistreated were made possible by the fact that we are not a democracy but a republic at the state and national levels.
I challenge anyone and everyone, including Rachel Maddow, to refute my assertions and then to explain how all the centuries of mistreatment that these seven groups have suffered took place in a real, honest-to-God democracy. And just for the fun of it, if we were a real democracy then Biden’s plan would pass easily, and I hope it does, we have Medicare after all, so miracles do happen. But I am not hopeful because our system of government is a republic and gives men like the current honcho of the senate, the power of life and death over millions of Americans.
Once all of you realize the error of your ways, I refer you to my book Faction-Free Democracy. I covered all of this, including a new, democratic system of government and a democratic system of economics.
The more I think about Maddow’s story tonight, I get upset. When she talks about “democracy” she raises the spirits of her followers. That is a very cruel thing to do. It is worth repeating, Our system of government is not, nor has it ever been, a democracy. It is a republic. Surely some of you have heard of the incident in which Ben Franklin answered a citizens inquiry as what form of government we have. He said, ‘Madam you have a republic, if you can keep it. He was right, and Maddow was wrong, and her error really matters.