We are NOT a Democracy! (An OUTSTANDING Article!)

Strike the Root! ^ | FR Post - Election Day 11-5-2002 | Joseph S. Bommerito

[vannrox]

	Strike The Root
	There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

 

It's NOT a Democracy

by Joseph S. Bommarito

The public education system teaches that we live in a democracy, in which the government is ruled by the majority. The founders of the country were students of government and knew that democracy was essentially mob rule with a thin veneer of legality and that the democracies of history had failed. No self-respecting person of that era would call himself a democrat.

A pre-Revolutionary statement by an anonymous Bostonian reflected a common belief that it was better to be ruled by one tyrant 3,000 miles away than by 3,000 tyrants a mile away. Historian Alexander Fraser Tytler wrote then that “A democracy . . . can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.” 

If not by democracy, then how do former subjects of a monarchy ensure freedom? Alexander Hamilton wrote, "We are now forming a republican form of government. Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy . . . . If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy, or some other form of dictatorship." 

The Constitution therefore states, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government . . . .”

The Constitution is a framework for government that is purposefully difficult to amend. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government were designed to provide checks and balances on each other. An additional check on power was that the three parties to legislation were to serve different constituencies.

- The House of Representatives was intended to be the only representative body for the people, with members elected democratically from specific districts.

- Members of the Senate were appointed by their respective state legislatures.

- The office of president was decided by electors, of which each state had at least three. The vice-president was the presidential candidate who received the second largest number of votes, ensuring a balance of opinion in the executive branch.

This provided the foundation for a government of limited power whose principal obligation was to protect the rights and liberties of the people. This charter of power from the people was not intended to be changed easily or to be a “living document,” subject to the whim of the moment. After the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin, when asked what had been wrought, responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.”  

But today we are continually subjected to chants of “our democracy,” “this is a democracy,” and “to restore our democracy” by politicians who should know better, having sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. 

As early as the 1830’s, Alexis de Tocqueville noted how little Americans valued freedom as opposed to equality. He wrote, "Democratic institutions awaken and foster a passion for equality which they can never entirely satisfy." Equality of condition, of position, of peace and comfort became more important than freedom for people to achieve what they could. The weeds of democracy had started springing up in the fields of freedom. 

Democracy gained more in 1913  when the balance of legislative power was changed by the Seventeenth Amendment, which provided for direct election of senators by the people. The Senate then represented the same constituencies as the House. Each presidential election now resounds with calls for the abandonment of the electoral system in favor of a popularly elected chief executive. 

Democracy advanced further in 1913 (it was a very bad year) when the income tax amendment gave Congress the power to tax one class of citizen in order to enrich others. This also gave Congress the excuse to snoop into our personal business, the revenue to create new and ever-larger welfare-state programs, and the ability to become power-brokers and the chief grantors of favors. 

The 1930’s saw President Franklin D. Roosevelt redefine freedom with his  “Four Freedoms” speech. Since then, people expect to have not only freedom of speech and religion, but also freedom from fear and from want, all provided by the government, of course, and paid for with other peoples’ money. 

Roosevelt threatened to “pack” the Supreme Court, which then quickly approved programs previously considered unconstitutional. The Court now routinely finds hidden meaning within the plain language of the Constitution, often in the welfare clause. Constitutional architect James Madison had written, “With respect to the words general welfare… To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.” But the Court routinely uses the welfare clause without regard to original intent. 

Power-lusting politicians prostitute themselves by offering taxpayer-provided goodies to any group that delivers votes. The largest special interest group has become the fifty percent of income earners who pay virtually no tax but receive benefits paid for by the other fifty percent. As H. L. Mencken once observed, “. . . government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.”

The limited government envisioned by the founders guaranteed a maximum of individual freedom. But freedom can be messy, a little chaotic. The benefits of freedom often go to dissidents whose speech and acts may disrupt the tranquility of daily life. Consequently, people have lost the realization that freedom helps everyone in the long run, not to achieve some artificial level of equality, but to improve their conditions.

Democracy promises equality at the cost of freedom and everyone quickly reaps the benefits of equality. A law is passed and benefits flow as from a mountain spring. But the long-term cost will be loss of self-reliance and an increasing dependence on government.

The inherent vice of freedom is the unequal sharing of the blessings; the inherent blessing of equality will be the equal sharing of misery.

As long as people value equality over freedom and enrichment over enterprise, the shackles of dependence will grow ever tighter and we will return to a type of medieval serfdom with bureaucrats and politicians in place of nobles and kings.

November 2, 2002

discuss this column in the forum

Joe Bommarito is a free-lance living and writing in Chatham County, Georgia with his lovely wife and three generally libertarian-minded felines.

freelance

2. a person who acts according to his principles and is not influenced by any group; an independent.

Joe Bommarito Archive

back to Strike The Root

[vannrox]

Exceptional! Article....

[FrogMom]

Bump for later reading, gotta go vote.

[PGalt]

bump

[philman_36]

Here is some help for you, which you desperately need.

[2banana]

The word "democracy" is not found in the US Constitution.

[RLK]

A constitutional republic is a mechanism for slowing down the corruptive process of democracy. Eventually, however, if the people are corrupt enough, long enough, they will overwhelm and slowly destroy even the most perfect of constitutions. That's where we are today.

[vannrox]

.

If not by democracy, then how do former subjects of a monarchy ensure freedom?

Alexander Hamilton wrote,

"We are now forming a republican form of government. Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy . . . .

If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy, or some other form of dictatorship." 

.

[Wrigley]

With that qoute I understand more why the left hates our Founding Fathers so much.

[Teacher317]

The inherent vice of freedom is the unequal sharing of the blessings; the inherent blessing of equality will be the equal sharing of misery.

BUMP for a must-read!

[vannrox]

.

"...The inherent vice of freedom is the unequal sharing of the blessings;


the inherent blessing of equality will be the equal sharing of misery..."


.

[TiaS]

I can personally relate to that line about government being a broker in pillage -- it was not just my purse that they have stolen -- but my NAME too! Today, I'm voting for every GREEN thing I can find on the ballot.

[OXENinFLA]

Repeal the 17th Amendment BUMP!!!

[PhilipFreneau]

My favorite quote on Democracy is this one by James Madison, the Father of the Constitution, from Federalist Paper #10, November 23, 1787:

. . . 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 have been violent in their deaths.

[philman_36]

Did you see this one? Forget Milk. Got ID?
Very tongue in cheek.

[MosesKnows]

The Constitution therefore states, “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government . . . .”

Agreed; an exceptional article.

The 16th and 17th amendment to the Constitution started the nation on the path toward becoming a democracy, which is the exact condition of government warned against by the framers of the Constitution. The Democrat party's memorial to Paul Wellstone is an excellent example of the results of a democracy, which was rule by the mob.

I would add that no where in the Constitution of the United States will you find even a single occurrence of the words democracy, democrat, or democratic.

[philman_36]

I've got misery aplenty enough already.

[jsraggmann]

Unfortunately, you are correct. There is really little difference between the Dems(Bolsheviks) and the Pubbies(Mensheviks). They both stand for big govt and socialism. The rate of the destruction of our Republic is the only difference.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

"Alexander Hamilton wrote,

'We are now forming a republican form of government. Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy . . . .

If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon shoot into a monarchy, or some other form of dictatorship.'"

It is interesting to play on Alexander Hamilton's words and note the similarity in meaning . . . change republican to "REPUBLICAN" (as in GOP) and democracy to "DEMOCRATS" (as in DEMONrats). Our founding fathers had it right from the beginning!

[MissAmericanPie]

Great article. I wish the founding fathers had added an amendment that the government cannot enter into any treaties with foreign entities without passage by popular vote. I also wish they had added a fool proof manner in which the citizens can sue for redress of grievances, which congress, down through the years, has successfully managed to blocked every avenue but revolution.

We should expect alot out of a Republican President, congress, and senate. Like returning alot of power to the states and getting back to a Republican form of government.

[GeekDejure]

Democracy = Democrats !!!

Republic = Republicans !!!

Any questions ???

[antidisestablishment]

Great article! It's a shame that most Americans would not have a clue what it was about. Damn Dewey and his ilk for stealing our children's heritage.

[philman_36]

We should expect alot out of a Republican President, congress, and senate. Like returning alot of power to the states and getting back to a Republican form of government.
Methinks you're expecting too much. We'll see though, won't we.

[philman_36]

Republic = Republicans !!!
Then what happened to the Republicans? They spout that "Democracy" pap just as much as the Democrats do!

[antidisestablishment]

Communism=Democrats

Plutocracy=Republicans

Commutocracy=Republicans and Democrats usurping our constitutional republic.

[Nonfaction]

Historian Alexander Fraser Tytler wrote then that “A democracy . . . can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.”

Great quote, but probably apocryphal. Even the Library of Congress has been unable to locate it in any of Tytler's writings.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

DEMOCRACY IS THE RULE OF FOOLS BY FOOLS!!

[motor_racer]

Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

A constitutional republic is a mechanism for slowing down the corruptive process of democracy. Eventually, however, if the people are corrupt enough, long enough, they will overwhelm and slowly destroy even the most perfect of constitutions. That's where we are today.

The stressing of a government founded on the Judao-Christian principles was the intended antidote to this. That is another reason the Democrat/Communists fight any reference by government to religion.

[philman_36]

Republic = Republicans !!!
Any questions???
Yeah...
Then what happened to the Republicans? They spout that "Democracy" pap just as much as the Democrats do!

But you're obviously not going to address it!!!

[Nephi]

Repeal the 17th Amendment BUMP!!!

It may not be that difficult.
Bill Benson has written a book which documents his investigation in all of the states of the union and found that the niether the 16th, or the 17th ammendment were properly ratified. They can both be overturned if they are attacked properly in the courts - if the court will hear the cases.

[EdReform]

BTTT

[Auntie Mame]

"...The inherent vice of freedom is the unequal sharing of the blessings;

the inherent blessing of equality will be the equal sharing of misery..."

Do you know the author for these quotes?

[Fiddlstix]

Great Article
Thanks for posting this

[IronJack]

No self-respecting person of that era would call himself a democrat.

Today, no self-respecting person would call himself a Democrat.

[MissAmericanPie]

I would like to think we would set our sites high. We better make hay while we have things our way and pressure them, pressure them, pressure them. No baby steps forward, that's a cop out.

They will have the mandate and instead of apologizing to the democrats for winning and setting a "new tone" in D.C. by making themselves door mats, we are going to have to inject some spine in them. Yes?

[philman_36]

They will have the mandate and instead of apologizing to the democrats for winning and setting a "new tone" in D.C. by making themselves door mats, we are going to have to inject some spine in them. Yes?
We're reduced to having to "inject spines" into them? Have they no spines of their own?
Well, squids and jellyfish are squids and jellyfish.
If "we" must I guess "we" must.
So sad...

[TiaS]

To the cynical one: Just remember -- sometimes, there's a sheep that Jesus watches over.

[vannrox]

Reference and Cross-Reference BUMP.

[lizma]

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
- Sir Winston Churchill

[BikerNYC]

Nice article, but it doesn't really define what it means when it uses the terms "democracy" or "republic."

[vannrox]

.

"...The 1930’s saw President Franklin D. Roosevelt redefine freedom with his  “Four Freedoms” speech.

Since then, people expect to have not only freedom of speech and religion, but also freedom from fear and from want, all provided by the government, of course, and paid for with other peoples’ money..."

. 

[Auntie Mame]

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries."
- Sir Winston Churchill


Thank you. I'm saving this quote for future reference.

[vannrox]

.


"...As early as the 1830’s, ... Equality of condition, of position, of peace and comfort became more important than freedom ..."

"...The weeds of democracy had started springing up in the fields of freedom..." 


.

[cdefreese]

Damn, that is a mighty fine article.
Have to put this on in my collection.

[Leisler]

Keep that up buddy and you're getting a backseat ride to the "re-education camp." :)

[vannrox]

.


"...Constitutional architect James Madison had written,

“With respect to the words general welfare…

To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators.”

But the Court routinely uses the welfare clause without regard to original intent. 


.

[philman_36]

Vidkun Quisling? Is that you?

[philman_36]

As early as the 1830’s...
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain in Texas...Goodbye Republic
I didn't want to believe that as far back as January 26, 1839, there seems to have been an effort to bring democracy into the mainstream.

[BikerNYC]

I'm afraid to ask....who?

[philman_36]

You don't know of the "collaborator"?
The term "quisling" is used to refer to a collaborator (not necessarily of the same "brand/type" as ol' Vidkun was though).
In other words...You're quisling on "the definition" of "democracy" and "republic" so you seem to be a "Democracy" collaborator.