No, I am not talking about the Republican Party but Republicanism as a system of government.  Our American founders and the framers of our constitution were adamantly opposed to Democracy or Majority Rule Direct Democracy.  They viewed the examples of Pure Democracies as failed experiments and fought diligently to ensure that America was not and never became one.  That belief has drifted in today’s political climate and most of the Democrats want to move to a Grecian Style Democracy and sadly some Republicans seem to believe that was the original intent.

My question, when I hear the argument of liberals is, “Have you actually read the Constitution?”  It usually draws a nasty response, but even a cursory reading of that document would reveal that we are a Republic, not a Democracy.  It, however, is valid to identify the United States as a Republican Democracy or a Representative Democracy but not a Majority Rule Democracy.  The safeguards those forefathers placed in our Constitution must be recognized, utilized and adhered to if we are to remain the Land of the Free.

Our Founding Fathers were students of history, especially as it related to forms of governments.  They knew their task was daunting and realized the tendency of man to push for a Majority Rule System of Government so the placed preventative guardrails to help keep America a Republic.  Their efforts have succeeded for over 240 years but are in grave danger of being discarded today.  That is a danger I cannot sit silent and watch transpire without sounding the alarm.

The Founding Fathers sought to establish a government where the true power was in the hands of the people.  That is only partially true today, albeit we still have the power of our vote.  Unfortunately, we have politicians argue they are pro-limited government but once installed into office they experience a metamorphosis into a Big Government proponent and advocate.  They come back to their States and Districts and insist they are for the People, but their votes reveal the fallacy of those arguments.

In a Republic or under Republican Government the Power is held by the people.  That was true in our initial stages and remained true for many generations.  The people give power to the leaders they elect to represent them and serve their interests.  Most politicians seem to think that means carte blanche to serve their individual interests and that of their political party rather than the Nation and the People.  The Representatives are then responsible for helping all the people, not just a few.  Ours is to be a Government of the people, for the people, and by the people.  That has transformed into a Government of the elected elitist who view us as their subjects.

The Founding Fathers believed in a Republican Form of Government for they believed that the people they elected to represent them would pass laws that would be fair and in the best interest of the republic.  They also believed that if those men failed in their commitment they could and would elect people to replace them who would serve the interests of the people.  They viewed elected representatives as temporary positions, meaning that each person would serve one or maybe two terms and then return to the workforce and live under the laws they passed.

In fact, they believed, as far as I can discern, that those leaders would serve temporarily and then return to private life to never run for office again.  Unlike a direct, or ‘pure’ democracy, in which the majority vote rules, a republic guarantees a certain set of basic civil rights to every citizen, codified in a charter or constitution, which cannot be overridden by a majority rule vote.  Without that safeguard, we would see such unrest and governmental upheaval in America that any hope of stability in government would vanish.

In a Republic, there is a provision for separation of powers, but in a Democracy, there are no such provisions.  In a Republic, we have the preservation of our inalienable rights such as is provided in the Bill of Rights and a part of our Constitution.  We have the assurance of freedom from governmental interference in private affairs.  It also places heavy emphasis on self-discipline and self-reliance.  Something that seems to be a vanishing characteristic of today’s society.  In a Monarchy or Tyranny, the all-powerful leader or leaders interfere with the lives of citizens by telling them what they can and cannot do.  In a Republic, the leaders are mandated to stay out of the private lives of the citizens.  That is unless the Republic as a whole is threatened with chaos and anarchy and thereby violates the inalienable rights of some citizens.

John Adams said, “Public virtue cannot exist in a nation without private, and public virtue is the only foundation of republics. There must be a positive passion for the public good, the public interest, honor, power, and glory, established in the minds of the people, or there can be no republican government, nor any real liberty: and this public passion must be superior to all private passions.”   Montesquieu said, “In Republican governments, men are all equal; equal they are also in despotic governments: in the former because they are everything; in the latter, because they are nothing.”

We are a Republic, but if the Democrats succeed in dismantling our Electoral College and transform it into Majority Vote system that will not be the end of their push.  It will engender the mistaken notion that we are a Pure or Direct Democracy.  That would transform the operation of the House and Senate and virtually everything else in America and the Republic would be lost.  Yes, I believe it is that serious!  The rule of the majority becomes mob rule and whatever decision made by the majority, no matter how ill-advised, or how it tramples on the rights of various groups or people, it becomes the law.  If you cannot see how dangerous that is to our American way of life and the preservation of our Free Constitutional Republic, you are not thinking deeply or clearly.

America, we are facing the survival or the demise of our System of Government.  You may think you want to become a Majority Rule Democracy but the first time the Majority Rules Against You, you will cry foul.  Remember Newton’s Third Law, “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”  In that sense, what goes around comes around and what you thought was good when it favored you will be deemed monstrous when it opposes you.  Be careful what you wish for.

God bless you and God bless America!