I am a retired computer systems engineer. I was born during the Great Depression, before World War II, before Hitler invaded Poland, before the Japanese Empire attacked Pearl Harbor, before computers were invented. I grew up surrounded by generations of relatives who frequently told stories about times gone by. These stories are often called “oral histories.” One example was my great-grandmother’s story about her grandfather who frequently claimed that he was one of the Founders of the Southern Baptist Church. Other oral histories corroborated her story. Her memory, built on the story of her grandfather, took her back to 1845. Because there was no radio or TV, and only a few movies for those old timers, they talked about their youth. I was treated to a detailed history that I never got in my American History courses in high school and college.
The most important lesson of all those generational histories is that our systems of government and economics have routinely given power to seven groups of Americans: white, male, Christian, heterosexual, well-to-do, native-born, and the abled. Conversely, our systems of government have routinely denied power and wealth to seven other groups of Americans: not-white, not-male, not-Christian, not-heterosexual, not well-to-do, not-native-born, and the disabled. The mistreated groups make up the great majority of our population. This unfair distribution of wealth and power has gone on since the beginning of our nation.
The seven favored groups own or control almost all of America’s power and wealth. The seven hated groups own or control very little of America’s power and wealth.
And, as we deal with the attack on the republic, we ignore the attack on our schoolchildren. Any government that enables the murder by gunfire of its children while they are in school, at their desks, preparing for that wonderful day when they will graduate and finally have the liberty to live their own lives while in pursuit of their own happiness, is a government that has forever forfeited its right to rule and, according to the command of the Declaration of Independence, must be replaced with a government that will give each citizen free and fair access to the rights, resources, opportunities, and protections that will give her a fair and honest chance to go as far in life as her talents and efforts can take her thereby giving her a fair and honest chance to build long lives worth living for herself and her loved ones, including a secure, comfortable retirement.
So, the cause of our problem is well known and so is the solution. Our unfair system of distributing wealth and power must be converted to distribute fairly these essential elements of a life worth living to all Americans. Only a democracy can make this come true.
The Framers of the Constitution realized at the time that the document was flawed and they knew the flaw would result in the mistreatment of the majority of our citizens but they did not know what to do about it. George Washington called these flaws, “imperfections” and he said, in writing, that he did not know how to correct them and if they were not corrected they would eventually abuse the people, destroy the government, and then the nation. He told us in writing how to see these flaws in operation. He told us, in writing, how to identify the man who would lead the destruction of our nation. Over two hundred years ago, he described the rise, the character, and the behavior of Donald Trump. He said this man would try to destroy America. Benjamin Franklin said the same thing within days of Washington’s warning. John Adams issued a similar warning in a 1796 letter to Thomas Jefferson. James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, went into detail in his warning which can be found in Federalist 10.
Historian Charles Beard, in his 1913 book, An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States, without realizing it, explains the reasons why the Framers chose a republican form of government and rejected democracy.
My generation of computer systems engineers, over a period of thirty years (1965-1995), computerized America and the world. (You are welcome, no thanks are necessary, it was exhilarating.)
Computers took a giant leap forward in 1965, when IBM released the SYSTEM/360. It made possible things that human beings otherwise could not do. For example Medicare, a system I helped develop, would not have been possible without this computer system. And computers make it possible to create an advanced, modern form of Athenian Democracy.
Finally I pull back the curtain and duck from the avalanche of insults that will come my way from the people who think they know all about Athenian Democracy. This colossal ignorance and infuriating arrogance, if permitted to block the replacement of our current systems of government and economics, will destroy America. Our system of education is to blame for the gross misunderstanding of the history of ancient Athens. I cannot explain this failing of our experts. Perhaps you can.
Not too long ago, Amazon sent me an email to alert me to the publication of a new book on the republican system of government. Amazon knew from my history that I was interested in the subject. So, I bought the computer version of the book which gave me a word-search capability. The book is called, How Democracies Die. It was written by two well-regarded scholars and it is a scholarly work. The book is well-researched, well-written, and I agree with their analysis and their conclusions, except for one thing: the book is about “How Republics Die.” Each failed system the authors discuss is actually a republic, not a democracy. But these scholars are only teaching us what they had been taught. This is how far our system of education has fallen. Men with advanced degrees do not know the difference between a democracy and a republic.
You can learn the important differences between a democracy and a republic by reading James Madison’s Federalist 10, the most important of the Federalist papers. But here I will reveal the core of Madison’s logic. He compares the two kinds of government, a democracy and a republic. He says that a republic is a government in which the entire government is delegated to a small group of men “elected by the rest.” This is a precise, concise description of our system of government, and Washington, Franklin, John Adams, and Hamilton, among others, all agree.
You will notice that in his description of democracies he does not ever mention the use of elections. And that is the essential difference. It is simple but dangerous and it is easy for demagogues (of which the Internet has a countless number) to mislead the casual observer.
When I received Amazon’s notice of the upcoming book, I immediately knew what it said, I could have written it that day. I got the book and immediately searched for “America.” I found it, and it was a good explanation of our form of government (a republic) which they erroneously called a “democracy.” They said that America is a democracy which has not yet failed, but all the moving parts were at work and would soon lead to destruction.
Here is an important place to pause. They are predicting the collapse of our system of government and so am I. And so did George Washington and the others. And all of us identify the same cause.
By using elections, republics develop political parties which then rot into “factions” as James Madison called them in Federalist 10. So, all the pieces are present today. We delegate power and wealth to a small group of citizens elected by the rest. The process of delegating power by elections gives power to the wealthy, who either take power directly, or give it (by means of campaign contributions) to men of their choosing. The people are left out of this process. Their wishes are ignored, and the wishes of the rich and powerful prevail.
The Framers, the authors of “How Democracies Die,” and I, all agree that political parties, made necessary by elections, and which are the hallmark of republics, will eventually destroy the government. Real democracies, such as that of ancient Athens, which do not rely on elections to choose and empower representatives, do not have this flaw, and therefore are not subject to the same kind of sudden collapse.
And the clincher. The authors of “How Democracies Die” did a good job, except for one detail:
“How did the democracy of ancient Athens die?”
As we know, Ancient Athens died by invasion from outside forces, not from an internal flaw.
So, I thought I would see what they said about the first democracy, the greatest democracy: the democracy of ancient Athens. It is certainly dead, so their theory about “How Democracies Die’ should explain its death. In fact if I had written ‘How Democracies Die” I would have discussed the death of the democracy of ancient Athens in the first chapter. But they didn’t. Their theory does not work with the democracy of ancient Athens, but it does work with republics.
I used Kindle’s word-search tool and looked for “Athenian Democracy.” No match was found. Next, I searched for “Athens,” and I got a hit. I was excited. So, I jumped to the location of “Athens” and found it in the back of the book beyond the footnotes. It was part of a mailing address: “Athens, Ohio.” So the closest the authors of “How Democracies Die,” came to discussing a real democracy was a mailing address, “Athens, Ohio.”
So, if you disagree with my conclusion, I challenge you to become a real historian. I challenge you to face the facts. The democracy of ancient Athens was destroyed by invasion from overwhelmingly powerful external forces. You can read it for yourself. There are lots of books on the subject.
But the authors of “How Democracies Die” did not discuss the demise of the democracy of ancient Athens, because it disproved their thesis.
Now, read Washington’s Farewell Address. Search his text for “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled”. There you will find that Washington says a “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled” man will ultimately win political power and then destroy our nation. Donald Trump certainly is “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled.” And the leaders of the Confederate States of America, the other group that nearly destroyed America, were definitely “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled."
It is obvious to the objective observer: Washington was right, our system of delegating power by means of elections and political parties will ultimately destroy us, if it has not already done so. We have armed men invading our government buildings right now, as they seek to overthrow the government, thereby destroying America. I know you love your political party, but that is a high school love. We love our high school teams but when, if, they lose, our way of life does not die. After a day or two, life goes on. But now we are grown and we should act like it.
Remember this:
At the end of the Constitutional Convention, as the delegates were gathering their belongings, and saying their goodbyes, a woman greeted Benjamin Franklin and asked this crucial, to-the-point, question.
“Tell us Dr. Franklin, what kind of government have you given us, a monarchy, or a republic?”
When I first read this story many years ago, I was disturbed. I wanted to know why the woman had not included “democracy” in her choice of potential governments. After all, America actually was a democracy, right? I later learned that educated people of that time and place were taught that democracies would not work in a nation as large as ours. Therefore America was too large, in population and geographic expanse, to be a democracy. Therefore democracy never was a real choice for our system of government.
Monarchy was not a possibility because we had just fought a long, expensive war to get rid of it. And, even if we wanted to become a monarchy, the only man in America who would be accepted as King by most Americans was George Washington, and he had firmly let it be known that he was not about to become “King George.” Monarchy was out of the question. By default, America became a republic. A nation with a flawed government—a ticking time bomb for a government.
So, what was Franklin’s answer?
The great man replied, “Madam, you have a republic, if you can keep it.”
If he was offering her a pet puppy, his answer, “if you can keep it.” Might make sense. Puppies might run off. So, you have to pay attention to them or you might regret what happens.
Franklin meant that republics are flawed and will self-destruct. You have to watch them closely in order to keep the nation safe.
America is not a democracy, it is a republic and it is in danger—danger made worse by people who refuse to face the real world and accept the fact that “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled, men” now have power over us and they are armed with extremely powerful weapons. If we should ever return to a stable condition, the smartest thing we can do is to use modern technology to revive the system of government that ruled ancient Athens for nearly two centuries, and make America a real democracy, and a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” will finally be real for the first time in more than 2,000 years. It is all up to you.
The lives of your children are at stake.