This Is What Democracy Looks Like

The United States is a constitutional republic based on the rule of law whose fundamental basis is the U.S. Constitution. It seems that a majority of the people and our current government have a problem with this fact. Let's consider two points:

1. Most people think that this nation is a democracy. The slogan being promoted by union organizers is: “Tell me what democracy looks like, this is what democracy looks like”. I heard this at the Save the American Dream Rally in Raleigh, NC and the following video shows what mob rule (Democracy) really looks like:

Our founding fathers understood the difference between mob rule and the rule of law. Whether the following quote is based on actual consideration of a monarchy, it is clear that a democracy was not part of the Constitutional Convention:

Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it."

“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they are violent in their deaths.”

The unions which are calling for a revolution for workers’ right are validating their belief that they live in a democracy. History will judge their actions if successful in the same manner as outlined by John Adams:

“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

Unfortunately, their attempts to show us what a democracy looks like are more likely to cause the end of our republic which brings me to the second point.

2. There is a fundamental difference between a democracy and a republic that must be clarified. The word "republic" comes from the Latin res publica — which means simply "the public thing(s)," or more simply "the law(s)." "Democracy," on the other hand, is derived from the Greek words demos and kratein, which translates to "the people to rule." This means that the majority of the people override the rights of the individual. Or to put it in simpler terms: mob rule instead of the rule of law.

Without the rule of law, there is no republic by definition. Let’s look at some clear violations of the law.

James Madison attributed much of the economic success of the American experiment to the "benign" influence of its government--not a cancerous growth which used up the People's wealth and ordered their affairs.

All the Founders' warned that "We, the People" must remain in charge of those we elected to serve us--all under the cognizance and rule of a "Supreme Judge of the world" to whom all were accountable.

This turned upside-down all previous people/government relationships, and required that rights and liberties, derived from a Creator/Divine Providence/Lawgiver/Supreme Judge(Declaration of Independence), therefore, unalienable, were possessed by the individual ("People"), and to be protected by "the People's" servants (representatives) who would be delegated certain limited powers to protect them.

So-called "progressives" have worked to reverse the order, leave the "Creator" out of it, and return America to Old-world "government-over-people" status.

Sir Winston Churchill, upon leaving office as Prime Minister in 1945, described what he believed to be the state of his country at that time:

"I do not believe in the power of the State to plan and enforce. No matter how numerous are the committees they set up or the ever-growing hordes of officials they employ or the severity of the punishments they inflict or threaten, they can't approach the high level of internal economic production achieved under free enterprise. Personal initiative, competitive selection, and profit motive corrected by failure and the infinite processes of good housekeeping and personal ingenuity, these constitute the life of a free society. It is this vital creative impulse that I deeply fear the doctrines and policies of the socialist government has destroyed. Nothing that they can plan and order and rush around enforcing will take its place. They have broken the main spring and until we get a new one, the watch wil not go. Set the people free. Get out of the way and let them make the best of themselves. I am sure that this policy of equalizing misery and organizing society--instead of allowing diligence, self-interest and ingenuity to produce abundance--has only to be prolonged to kill this British Island stone dead."

America needs to rediscover the formula for a "benign" government, if it is to recover its greatness among the nations. That formula is contained in the Founders' Constitution, as written and interpreted by them.

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