Republic vs Democracy
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How often have you heard that the American form of government is a "democracy"? But when you look at the types of 'democracy' practiced in the past (i.e., in Ancient Greece), why doesn't it look anything look like anything we have today? Well, that's because we don't have a 'democracy'; we have a 'constitutional republic'.
A democracy is a political system in which the people periodically, by majority vote at the polls, select their rulers. Those rulers then have absolute power to make whatever rules they please by majority vote among themselves. In a constitutional republic, the people also, by majority vote at the polls, select rulers who make laws by majority vote among themselves. But the rulers cannot make any laws they please because the Constitution severely limits their law-making power. The primary difference between the two is that "We, the People" don't actually make the rules. We elect people to make the rules for us; hopefully, intelligent and responsible people, but it doesn't seem like that lately, does it?
Since the middle of the 20th century, great strides have been made toward the goal of subverting our republic and transforming it into a democracy. The foremost tactic of these subverters is the subversion of language. By calling America a 'democracy' until people thoughtlessly accept and use the term, the Old Parties have obscured the real meaning of American principles of government.
The writers of the Constitution were anxious to safeguard liberty against dictatorship ("monarchy" they called it), but their chief anxiety was to protect the country against democracy.
- Edmund Randolph, delegate to the Constitutional Convention from Virginia, said that the general object of the Convention was "to provide a cure for the follies and fury of a democracy".
- Elbridge Garry and Roger Sherman, delegates from Massachusetts and Connecticut, urged the Constitutional Convention to create "a system to eliminate the evils that flow from the excess of democracy."
- Alexander Hamilton, delegate from New York, said, "we are now forming a Republican government. Real liberty is not found in democracy. If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy."
- John Adams, one of the giants of the American Revolutionary period, said, "Democracy will envy all, contend with all, endeavor to pull down all. And when, by chance, it happens to get the upper hand for a short time, democracy will be revengeful, bloody, and cruel."
America was not founded as a democracy, but as a constitutional republic. We pledge allegiance to Republic for which our flag stands, not to a democracy. The Constitution requires a "Republican" form of government for all states, but does not mention "democracy", and neither does the Declaration of Independence or the Bill of Rights.
A woman once asked Benjamin Franklin what kind of government the Constitutional Convention had given America. Franklin replied, "A Republic, if you can keep it." Very old and very wise, Franklin saw through the mists of time to the day when Americans might trade their freedom in a constitutional republic for the promise of government-guaranteed equality and security in a democracy, and beyond that to the day when democracy inevitably degenerates into dictatorship, guaranteeing nothing but poverty and serfdom for the people that it rules and robs.