In my reading today I stumbled across a blog by James D. Best.
At the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Franklin was queried as he left Independence Hall on the final day of deliberation. In the notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Convention, a lady asked Dr. Franklin “Well Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy.” Franklin replied, “A republic . . . if you can keep it.”
Our Constitution created a limited representative republic. A republic is different from a democracy. In a democracy, the majority can directly make laws, while in a republic, elected representatives make laws. Basically, in a pure democracy, the majority has unlimited power, whereas in a republic, a written constitution limits the majority and provides safeguards for the individual and minorities.
In the United States, we actually have both systems. There is no way for Americans to directly enact legislation at the national level, but half of the states allow ballot initiatives which, if passed by a majority of the voters, have the force of law.
The Founders’ intent at the national level was a representative republic. The word democracy is not mentioned in the Constitution. Most of the Founders distrusted pure democracy. Some had been frightened by Shays Revolt and equated democracy with mob rule. Others were convinced by Madison that different factions would come together until they formed a majority, and then take advantage of those who were not members of their coalition. In fact, Madison showed that throughout history, this phenomenon had destroyed every experiment in democracy.
John Adams wrote that “There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide,” and James Madison wrote in Federalist 10 that “Democracies have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” The reason pure democracies fail is that majorities learn that they can legally take property and/or liberties away from others. Those subjected to abuse can be anyone outside the majority coalition, and their minority status can be based on race, religion, wealth, political affiliation, or even which city or state they reside in. Demagogic leaders become adept at appealing to the emotions of jealousy, avarice, and entitlement. They also denigrate opponents in order to justify prejudicial actions taken by the majority. Soon, oppression of minority classes causes enough conflicts to collapse the democratic process.
Follow me below the fold for my "take" on this blog.
We now find ourselves living in a country that is being governed by a coalition that the Republican party has formed with the super wealthy, multinational corporations, Wall Street, the upper echelons of our Military, and our police. They have all the money they need, and the military and police to enforce their decrees. They can give the appearance of legality while actually destroying our government and way of life from within.
How should we proceed? I am frankly tired of being told, "This is the best country in the world, if you don't like it, leave." This is after all, my country too, and yours. I don't want to change our country, I want to see our government reset, back to the Republic our Founding Fathers established for us. I believe we are in for a struggle.
Can we actually wrest control from those who now have a stranglehold on our government? I don't know if it is possible. Historically, such struggles always devolve into violence, even in India, whose revolution was guided by someone famous for using Civil Disobedience instead of violence. Our own Founders resorted to war in their quest for freedom. We have a long history of violent confrontations with madmen who threatened our freedom.
How do we fight these Republicans? What we are doing has not been working. Will this effort require, in the end, that we too, resort to violence in order to reclaim Freedom?