Republic or Democracy?
By Susan Steffen-Kraft
When we say the Pledge of Allegiance to whom do we give that allegiance? The answer being that the flag stands as a symbol for what we are pledging that allegiance to. Do we say and to the Democracy for which it stands? The answer is no we do not! We use the word Republic? The answer is definitely yes! The United States of America is a Republic which many people today do not seem to realize. If you do not know the difference between a democracy and a republic there is one big difference!
A republic means that "the sovereignty is in each individual and in the word democracy the sovereignty is in the group!" The Constitution restricts the governments power and that in essence is a Republic. We have natural rights versus civil rights and the Bill of Rights protects the people from the majority! The people enjoy their God-given natural rights in a republic. In a democracy, the citizens would only enjoy government granted privileges which are also called civil rights. In a republic, the sovereignty resides in the people themselves, whether one or many. In a republic, one may act on his own or through his representatives as he chooses to solve a problem. Further, the people have no obligation to the government; instead, the government being hired by the people, is obliged to its owner, the people.
Delving a little further into this is the fact that in a democracy the minority has no rights as the privileges are granted by the majority. In a republic the group only has advisory powers. And in a republic the people have no obligation to the government because the government is hired by the people and because of that it is obliged to the people who own the government. The people can choose to exercise the right to use that sovereignty directly or through representatives as they choose in order to solve a problem.
The people do that by appointing those powers to the representative and thus, you have the power to not only reject the group think but even the representative. The representative is suppose to vote on behalf of the people instead of the people having to vote on every little issue which would find us living at the polls instead of having jobs, eating, going to church and spending time with families. I kid you not because if you see the amount of bills brought up to the House your head would spin. Mine does that with the amount of calls and petitions I sign.
A republic means that "the sovereignty is in each individual and in the word democracy the sovereignty is in the group!" The Constitution restricts the governments power and that in essence is a Republic. We have natural rights versus civil rights and the Bill of Rights protects the people from the majority! The people enjoy their God-given natural rights in a republic. In a democracy, the citizens would only enjoy government granted privileges which are also called civil rights. In a republic, the sovereignty resides in the people themselves, whether one or many. In a republic, one may act on his own or through his representatives as he chooses to solve a problem. Further, the people have no obligation to the government; instead, the government being hired by the people, is obliged to its owner, the people.
Delving a little further into this is the fact that in a democracy the minority has no rights as the privileges are granted by the majority. In a republic the group only has advisory powers. And in a republic the people have no obligation to the government because the government is hired by the people and because of that it is obliged to the people who own the government. The people can choose to exercise the right to use that sovereignty directly or through representatives as they choose in order to solve a problem.
The people do that by appointing those powers to the representative and thus, you have the power to not only reject the group think but even the representative. The representative is suppose to vote on behalf of the people instead of the people having to vote on every little issue which would find us living at the polls instead of having jobs, eating, going to church and spending time with families. I kid you not because if you see the amount of bills brought up to the House your head would spin. Mine does that with the amount of calls and petitions I sign.
  |  |
In the above pictures is of top left....Samuel Adams, bottom left....Fisher Ames and on the right is Benjamin Franklin.
Samuel Adams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, championed the new Constitution in his state precisely because it would not create a democracy. "Democracy never lasts long," he noted. "It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself." He insisted, "There was never a democracy that 'did not commit suicide.'"
Fisher Ames served in the U.S. Congress during the eight years of George Washington's presidency. A prominent member of the Massachusetts convention that ratified the Constitution for that state, he termed democracy "a government by the passions of the multitude, or, no less correctly, according to the vices and ambitions of their leaders." On another occasion, he labeled democracy's majority rule one of "the intermediate stages towards ... tyranny."
He later opined: "Democracy, in its best state, is but the politics of Bedlam; while kept chained, its thoughts are frantic, but when it breaks loose, it kills the keeper, fires the building, and perishes." And in an essay entitled The Mire of Democracy, he wrote that the framers of the Constitution "intended our government should be a republic, which differs more widely from a democracy than a democracy from a despotism."
The Constitutional Convention was held in 1787 in strict secrecy at the Pennsylvania State House the name later being changed to Independence Hall. The reason for the secrecy was that nobody who was not one of the delegates could know what they were discussing until after all the decisions were made. Not wishing the regular citizens to be fighting and debating over something that might not happen and over what they were saying they realized that when the final outcome arrived and was presented then Americans could debate all they wanted to if they wished to do so.
The citizens were very anxious to learn what had been produced behind the closed doors. Once the delegates left the building Mrs. Powel who lived in Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well doctor, what have we got?"He did not answer a democracy or even a democratic republic but replied without hesitating, "A republic, if you can keep it!"
Parts 3 and 4 of Overview of America in the videos below will also explain the history of democracies and republics.
Samuel Adams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, championed the new Constitution in his state precisely because it would not create a democracy. "Democracy never lasts long," he noted. "It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself." He insisted, "There was never a democracy that 'did not commit suicide.'"
Fisher Ames served in the U.S. Congress during the eight years of George Washington's presidency. A prominent member of the Massachusetts convention that ratified the Constitution for that state, he termed democracy "a government by the passions of the multitude, or, no less correctly, according to the vices and ambitions of their leaders." On another occasion, he labeled democracy's majority rule one of "the intermediate stages towards ... tyranny."
He later opined: "Democracy, in its best state, is but the politics of Bedlam; while kept chained, its thoughts are frantic, but when it breaks loose, it kills the keeper, fires the building, and perishes." And in an essay entitled The Mire of Democracy, he wrote that the framers of the Constitution "intended our government should be a republic, which differs more widely from a democracy than a democracy from a despotism."
The Constitutional Convention was held in 1787 in strict secrecy at the Pennsylvania State House the name later being changed to Independence Hall. The reason for the secrecy was that nobody who was not one of the delegates could know what they were discussing until after all the decisions were made. Not wishing the regular citizens to be fighting and debating over something that might not happen and over what they were saying they realized that when the final outcome arrived and was presented then Americans could debate all they wanted to if they wished to do so.
The citizens were very anxious to learn what had been produced behind the closed doors. Once the delegates left the building Mrs. Powel who lived in Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well doctor, what have we got?"He did not answer a democracy or even a democratic republic but replied without hesitating, "A republic, if you can keep it!"
Parts 3 and 4 of Overview of America in the videos below will also explain the history of democracies and republics.
Why are we so confused today? Don't feel to bad as even President Ford in his inaugural address on August 9 added to the confusion by stating the "our great Republic is a government of laws, and not of men. Here the people rule." Now that certainly is a paradox which means it is self-contradictory. How can our country be both a republic and a democracy at once? Riddle me that! The people are not the rulers as there was never to be any rulers over this country! The Declaration of Independence states men "are endowed with certain unalienable rights" and governments are formed to "secure those rights." If any government acknowledges these truths then they must have laws limiting both the people and government.
When did we start thinking this was a democracy? The answer is that it was not until this last century! Woodrow Wilson famously declared that we had fought World War I to "to make the world safe for democracy." Franklin Roosevelt stated that "the U.S. must be the great arsenal of democracy." Makes one wonder when he used the word arsenal just what he was implying. That our country would force democracy through it's arsenal on the rest of the world. Note that we would not even force a republic but a democracy!
When voters discover that in a democracy they can vote themselves money and or gifts from the public treasury they often vote for the candidates promising the most benefits for the voters. Then the democracy finally falls due to fiscal failure and a dictatorship follows.
Makes you wonder why the liberal media and politicians pulled this so called "bait and switch" on We the People because most everyone not only is taught we are a democracy in schools but they hear and read it everywhere. I would suspect that a dictatorship is what the powers that be were aiming for this entire time.
When did we start thinking this was a democracy? The answer is that it was not until this last century! Woodrow Wilson famously declared that we had fought World War I to "to make the world safe for democracy." Franklin Roosevelt stated that "the U.S. must be the great arsenal of democracy." Makes one wonder when he used the word arsenal just what he was implying. That our country would force democracy through it's arsenal on the rest of the world. Note that we would not even force a republic but a democracy!
When voters discover that in a democracy they can vote themselves money and or gifts from the public treasury they often vote for the candidates promising the most benefits for the voters. Then the democracy finally falls due to fiscal failure and a dictatorship follows.
Makes you wonder why the liberal media and politicians pulled this so called "bait and switch" on We the People because most everyone not only is taught we are a democracy in schools but they hear and read it everywhere. I would suspect that a dictatorship is what the powers that be were aiming for this entire time.
personalliberty.com, The Birch Log, www.jbs.org/quickhits/republics-and-democracies, www.1215.org/lawnotes/lawnotes/repvsdem.htm, www.wisegeek.com, www.answers.com, us.yhrs4.search.yahoo.com
RSS Feed