How hard is this?
The Constitution of the United States was very clear. Article 4, Section 4 states that “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government. . . .”
Yet amazingly, over and over again, we are fed a misrepresentation, that the United States are a democracy. Over the past 20-30 years, it has gotten worse with the loudest cries coming every 4 years on Election Day. Amazingly, even our news reporters and government official continue to foist this false idea into the heads of Americans.
We are NOT A DEMOCRACY. And the big secret—none of the founders EVER wanted us to be one. OK, ok, perhaps Franklin considered it a possibility, but even he conceded to the will of the majority of our founders who all feared what a democracy implied—mob rule. Madison said it best in Federalist #10
Hence it is that [pure] 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. Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of government, have erroneously supposed that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions. A republic, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of representation takes place, opens a different prospect, and promises the cure for which we are seeking.
Without dragging out the point, Madison was saying what we are seeing in our time—a democracy is turbulent and opens the door to the “majority unlimited.”
Elbridge Gerry said it this way: “the evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. . .the worse. . .of all political evils.” Even Franklin realized that the people had to be limited in some way lest the majority trample the rights of the minority. Thus, the government form of republic was chosen.
What did they mean by it? Well, to some degree, the following 80 years till the Civil War were about finding that definition as it came to encompass issues like states’ rights and slavery. And of course, post-Civil War, the Populists and other activists from the West continued to push for more democracy, birthing it to its full expression under the socialistic programs of FDR. But, John Adams was clearly able to distill the “true and only true definition of a republic,” in his Defence [sic] of the Constitutions of the Government of the United States this way, “a government, in which all men, rich and poor, magistrates and subjects, officers and people, masters and servants, the first citizen and the last, are equally subject to the laws”
In other words (and within that document), “majority rule” for the whole of government was rejected. Noting that the vaunted Montesquieu had also divided the two concepts when he said, “virtue in a republic, is a love of the republic; virtue in a democracy, is a love of the democracy,” Adams made pains to show the difference between a republic and a democracy.
So where does that leave us? Well, certainly the founders believed in democratic principles in which the citizens could express their opinion. But the concept of “citizenship” was a deep idea for the founders, based mostly on the ownership of property. While we don’t have room to get into that concept now, we must understand that being a citizen is core to a Republic.
I know that we’ve been told for at least 100 years that we are in a democracy, but we are not. We must understand this fact if we are to continue to pursue this experiment that our founders set us upon. As Franklin exited the Convention Hall, he was asked by a passing lady “Well, Doctor, what have we got–a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin replied, “A republic–if you can keep it.” In all the argument and issues surrounding elections, we MUST hear the voices of the past and reject any and all calls for us to be or become “a democracy.” We are a republic.
Still don’t believe me? Okay, join with me then: “I pledge allegiance, to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the ____________.”