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Is America a Republic or is it a Democracy – What is it?
Metallicman ^ | 11OCT18 | Editorial staff

Posted on 10/11/2018 4:10:36 AM PDT by vannrox

I often hear Conservatives explicitly state that America is a Constitutional Republic. They argue this, because the United States Constitution set the organization and layout of the nation as a Republic. It states this explicitly as such. Meanwhile, I often hear Liberals, Democrats and Progressives repeatedly state that America is a Progressive Democracy. They say this, mostly because I guess, they don’t know any better. They parrot what they have heard.

Today, sadly, America does not function like either a Republic or a Democracy. It functions as something else. It functions and operates as an Oligarchy. It really does. Let’s look at this issue and try to determine what is going on in America; the most significant nation on this planet…

Americans are brought up to believe all sorts of myths about the country we call home. We’re told our economy is a free market meritocracy governed by the rule of law. We’re told our civil liberties, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, are inviolable and protected by the most powerful military in the world. A fighting force entrusted with the admirable and monumental task of defending freedoms at home, and democracy and human rights abroad. We’re told we exist in a system of self-government, in which our votes matter and our voices heard.

In practice, none of this is true.

There are many, many people who have addressed this issue. The arguments are rather simple and blunt.

If America is an actual Republic, then why is there a Federal Reserve, Senators that are popularly elected, and federal agencies that override the tenth Amendment. Republics that follow the Constitution will have none of this.

Alternatively, if America is a Democracy, then why are the populist issues resolved in the favor of the wealthy elite? Why are we endlessly involved

(Excerpt) Read more at metallicman.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Philosophy; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: belongsinbloggers; blogtrash; clickbait; democracy; liberal; republic; sidebarabuse; swamp
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To: JimRed

I don’t read any of those.........


61 posted on 10/11/2018 8:49:53 AM PDT by Arlis
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To: Arlis
But Trump--fully supported--can be more than just a temporary reprieve! We have an opportunity. We must not fail to grasp it.

Our Last Chance? [Can Donald Trump Revive The "Spirit of '76?]

And for the moment, at least, the insanely vicious Feminist attacks on Judge Kavanaugh have started a wakeup process for many who were passively going along with what the academic/media complex were promoting. [Feminist Hatred For Judge Kavanaugh]

62 posted on 10/11/2018 8:53:53 AM PDT by Ohioan
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To: jacknhoo

The USA’s type of government: constitutional federal republic


That may have been the intention, but what we have now is a decadent (1), nation-state (2).

(1) Any nation wherein something as impactful as Obamacare can be enacted by the legislative body without them reading it first, is decadent.

(2) The last barriers to control of the nation by the central government were blown down by the Bush administration’s victory in the Supreme Court case of Raich v Gonzales. This ended the federal/republican form of governing. Justice Thomas noted correctly in dissent that ...

“By holding that Congress may regulate activity that is neither interstate nor commerce under the Interstate Commerce Clause, the Court abandons any attempt to enforce the Constitution’s limits on federal power.”


63 posted on 10/11/2018 10:16:08 AM PDT by sparklite2 (See more at Sparklite Times)
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To: carriage_hill

Another moron who fails to understand that most governments are a blend of several of the different forms. And that only very rarely is any government entirely one thing or another, and those that are generally don’t last very long.


64 posted on 10/11/2018 2:07:56 PM PDT by Paal Gulli
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To: Paal Gulli

I said it was a good read, but he is a dreamer if he thinks that it’s only one kind of gov’t. IMO, socialism/communism/marxism should be summarily-punishable by death. They’ve never worked.


65 posted on 10/11/2018 2:23:06 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.)
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To: Jim Noble
So, the Left in the US has a majority somewhere between 20 million and 40 million people.

I wonder how many are real people and not fake or deceased voters? I also wonder how many are actually citizens legal to vote? The dims are the party that doesn't just cheat some, they have nearly perfected it.

66 posted on 10/11/2018 2:28:30 PM PDT by Tammy8
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To: Article10

Actually no. The states still control the Electoral College where true representation of sates now reside. Win the states 270 ,ark to win the Presidency. This deludes the idea of a direct democracy of the people popular vote. It’s the only way to avoid a true democracy.

The election of senators thru the 17th Amendment is a grave mistake by a Wilson and the progressives at that time,


67 posted on 10/11/2018 2:43:29 PM PDT by DownInFlames (Gals)
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To: Candor7

Our Constitution was set up as a mechanism; a nation, where people could self-govern themselves. The framework was established as a Republic. The founders absolutely detested Democracies and did not want the United States to be anything even remotely resembling a Democracy.

However, the people that followed them, thought otherwise. They felt that a limited government where people had self control of their own governance was a folly and needed to be “improved”. Thus a number of amendments were drafted up by the Convention of States to change the United States away from a Republic and into a Democracy.

In 1803, a mere 27 years later, the 12th Amendment was ratified. This was done in a rather short time. It took a mere six months to quickly ratify this amendment. This Amendment made both the President and Vice President electable by popular vote. You know, like a Democracy does.

Then, in 1913, a the 17th Amendment was ratified. It established the direct election of United States Senators by popular vote. You know, just like a Democracy does.

These two changes were significant.


If you take a hamburger, and remove the beef patty, what is it?

Is it still a hamburger, as Conservatives claim?
Is it a sandwich, as Liberals claim?

Or, is it something else; Two slices of bread with condiments in between?


They changed the United States Constitution in a fundamental way. They turned it into a Democracy with only the smallest vestiges of a Republic scattered about in the tattered remains of the once impressive document.


68 posted on 10/11/2018 5:27:52 PM PDT by vannrox (The Preamble to the Bill of Rights - without it, our Bill of Rights is meaningless!)
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To: DownInFlames

Partly true.. only for Election of the President. The primary balance and check on the legislative body is gone under the 17th Amendment.

The day to day, rule if law is gone under the 17th Amendment with no checks and balances on the Federal bureaucracy by the State legislature and state governors office for 1/2 of the legislature of the federal government. It effectively killed a huge balance and truly made the state government subservient to the Fed government.


69 posted on 10/12/2018 3:00:23 AM PDT by Article10 (Roger That)
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To: Article10

Yep


70 posted on 10/12/2018 6:03:08 PM PDT by DownInFlames (Gals)
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To: Article10

Actually, even with the Seventeenth Amendment, as bad of an amendment as it may be, we’re STILL not a democracy. Don’t forget, the Electoral College still decides who becomes President. Sure, we may not exactly be a pure Republic anymore, but we’re still not a democracy.

Trust me, if we were truly a democracy at this point, we would be more akin to France during the French Revolution, either September Massacres or Reign of Terror, you can take your pick, where people are on the streets murdering each other for a sick laugh, down to the exact minute details.


71 posted on 10/27/2018 3:55:28 AM PDT by otness_e
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To: qaz123

Well, of course Democracy is mob rule, as it’s been that way since the French Revolution at the very least.

And quite honestly, I think that having California secede, not to mention the West Coast, is a very bad idea and wouldn’t solve our problems. I mean, yeah, sure, those leftists who were actually born and raised in California such as George Lucas will probably not be able to be much of a problem with secession. But the liberals who were from other states still would be a problem, as even if we do succeed in having them secede, leftists such as Bob Iger, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Michael Eisner and the like will just move back to New York and push their leftist politics regardless, repeat exactly the same issues that doomed those states, and then we’d have to have the East Coast secede. It just wouldn’t work, and besides, it would also harm the Conservatives who actually ARE still in California via secession.


72 posted on 10/27/2018 4:03:27 AM PDT by otness_e
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To: awelliott

I know that Jefferson, Paine, and to a certain extent Benjamin Franklin (at least, the site The American Catholic indicated he initially liked the French Revolution) definitely supported it. However, I’m not entirely sure Jefferson and Paine were really naïve about what it was about.

For starters, unlike the other founding fathers who at least had the excuse of being separated by the Atlantic Ocean and had fairly slow communication, Jefferson was actually there as the French Revolution was going on, even witnessed Bastille Day first hand. He knew exactly what was going on, yet not only supported it, but even helped draft the Declaration of The Rights of Man and the Citizen (as a matter of fact, his stay in France as ambassador is EXACTLY why Jefferson was not involved in the Constitution). If he had his way, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had something similar to France. And get this, he continued to support its excesses up to and including the events of the Reign of Terror, to the extent that he even denounced William Short when he tried to inform him what was truly going on (and Short was like a son to him).

And as far as Paine, his Age of Reason book published after the events in France indicated he did NOT learn his lesson about the French Revolution, especially regarding atheism.

In fact, probably the only one of the three who actually DID learn their lesson was Benjamin Franklin due to his coining the wolf and sheep supper analogy denouncing democracy at least.


73 posted on 10/27/2018 4:11:16 AM PDT by otness_e
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To: Article10

Like I said, at least we’re still not like France under the French Revolution, regardless of the Seventeeth Amendment. It would take a LOT more than just the Seventeenth Amendment before we even come close to September Massacres France, let alone Reign of Terror France, which is exactly what we would have to reach before we can truly qualify as a democracy. Even at the state level, we’re not close to that. Now, if we have mob riots every single day, people murdering each other for laughs, having mobs “clean out” prisons, and all of that shebang, not to mention executing people in public before a clamoring baying mob while interrupting a leader’s final speech forgiving the populace, also murdering various Catholics and other religious people in the name of atheism, then yes, we are officially a democracy.


74 posted on 10/27/2018 4:15:38 AM PDT by otness_e
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To: otness_e

But if those folks move back to NYC, who cares? Wouldn’t it be like adding 10 more ants to the ant farm? They’re leftist, only in the sense that they can push for all sorts of Liberal/Leftists programs, but are wealthy enough and have enough armed security around them, that they don’t deal with the consequences of those programs.

As for the Conservatives that could be stuck in California. How about we offer an exchange program like they do with spies? You give me one of your Conservative resident and I’ll give you one of my Liberal residents.


75 posted on 10/27/2018 6:41:10 AM PDT by qaz123
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To: qaz123

Them being leftist ideologues who are wealthy enough to influence elections to go to the far left, not to mention skipping town before the consequences of those programs are made apparent, is EXACTLY the problem. Let me point out that we let the Frankfurt School enter thinking no harm would be done, and look what happened: The well got poisoned, so to speak.

And honestly, I’m not even sure that’s going to be good enough, an exchange program, I mean. I’d argue we need to just get rid of any leftists from the country.


76 posted on 10/27/2018 8:41:30 AM PDT by otness_e
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To: otness_e

I cannot disagree. The country is so polarized right now, but unfortunately they’re winning, as much as I hate to say it.

I live in Georgia. It’s gradually turning Purple. I can live with the fact that the cities are Democratic strongholds. I get that. But, in Georgia, north of Atlanta in the 6th Congressional District, a millenial that didn’t even live in the district almost became a member of the House of Representatives. And, during the run-off, he only lost by a little under 4%. That is a scary margin.

Personally, I blame the Governors and Chambers of Commerce of states like Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Texas for what is happening in those states. Those states are slowly turning. They all ran around the country doing their best to lure big businesses away from their high tax states, giving away the ranch to do it. Those businesses are run by the people you said, Leftist Ideologues who are wealthy enough. So, they take the handout and move all their Leftist/Liberal/Dem voting workers with them, with the promises of bigger, newer houses, lower property taxes, good schools and better weather. They come in droves but one thing they do not do, they do not assimilate into the Southern, Texan, Real Floridian lifestyles. They bring their high tax, government needs to do everything for me, attitude and just ruin the next place. I’m not saying they all have to buy F250 Super Duty’s and start deer hunting. But they bring their Northeastern BS with them, every where they go.

I’m with you. Get rid of them. Or at least partition off the country so they can live their lives with each other and the rest of can live our lives. Only problem with that, they refuse to recognize that their ideas/policies are what causes all the problems. So when sh*t goes crazy, taxes are thru the roof, crime is thru the roof, they’ll be knocking on our door.


77 posted on 10/27/2018 9:34:26 AM PDT by qaz123
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To: qaz123

I live in Georgia too, and I’m definitely making sure that I vote Republican for a variety of reasons. 1. I refuse to vote for any candidate who would advocate for Abortion (my initial choice for the 2016 Presidential Elections was Ben Carson, and I only ended up choosing Donald Trump after it became apparent he may be our only shot at undoing Roe v. Wade, and even THERE, only after he nominated Mike Pence as his running mate.), which is something the Democrats unfortunately are likely to back, and 2., Due to suffering from ulcerative colitis and having to go through hoops to get the necessary treatments due to AMBetter basically making it too difficult to get the necessary drugs for the infusions, I am simply not interested in voting for anyone who is most likely going to make the insurance issue even worse.

And honestly, you should have seen the redo Republican primary “debate” that was hosted. They only answered ONE question that actually related to their policies (namely, how to handle the highway issues that Atlanta is rather infamous for), and after that, they managed to pretty much snipe each other, with it being made pretty obvious that the so-called “moderators” were instigating the peeing match between the two. I ultimately voted for Kemp since he at least managed to voice a reasonable policy, but I was disgusted by how they turned a debate into a shouting match (and Kemp wasn’t even my original choice, it was Casey Cagle, and I ultimately settled for Kemp after making sure he stood for the right to life.).

If there’s any good news, though, it’s that it’s at least very likely that former mayor Kasim Reed is most likely going to be spending some quality time in the big house due to leaving an obvious paper trail to his embezzlement.

And yeah, we really have to fix those Governors and Chamber of Commerces badly, especially if we are to neuter the Left of any influence. I’d be pretty surprised if Georgia does turn Blue this election, considering it wasn’t too long ago that Snowpocalypse happened (and I don’t thin most people were too happy with Kasim Reid for using the emergency lane at the expense of first responders to get an award. I know my Urban Planning professor most certainly wasn’t). And if Jeffrey Katzenberg gets involved in this election, heck, any of them, that will give me even MORE concern (since that guy was a big radical leftist political animal since the 1972 presidential elections where he worked in John Lindsay’s political campaign, even quit college in order to do so, and there’s evidence that he tried to force in his leftist views to Disney films since Beauty and the Beast up to Pocahontas, not to mention DreamWorks films.).


78 posted on 10/27/2018 12:02:16 PM PDT by otness_e
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