Poor Liz Chaney got hammered last night in more ways than one. But she does not even know what kind of Government we have here in America. Some History lessons for Mrs. Chaney below. Hint, "We are not a Democracy Liz".
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Is The U.S. a Democracy or a Republic?
by Civics Nation Admin | Feb 13, 2018
Protest is a key democratic freedom. Photo credit: Shutterstock
The United States is a democracy, right? Yes. Absolutely. But if that’s the case, why are we seeing arguments to the contrary?
It’s not in headlines, but below the surface within right-leaning online political publications—the kinds of places some might go to find alternatives to what’s being dubbed “fake news” by our president—people are trying to argue that the U.S. is a constitutional republic, and not a democracy at all. But of course the U.S. is a democracy! Why would anyone want to confuse the issue?
Before we try to answer that question, let’s talk about how the American democratic system actually works. The folks perpetuating these stories say that republics and democracies are incompatible things, and that the U.S. is a republic. Any civics expert will tell you that these two systems are not mutually exclusive.
The United States is a democratic republic—both a democracy and a republic. Case closed. The conversation should end there, right? Wrong. Proponents of the idea that the U.S. is not meant to be democratic like to talk a lot about the founders, so let’s talk a bit about the founders.
It’s true that the founding fathers didn’t support a pure, direct, Rousseauian-style democracy, but they clearly did believe in a democratically elected government. To reconcile two ideas, they devised a system where representatives are democratically elected by the populace to serve at the pleasure of the citizenry.
Where you have voting representatives, you have a republic. The Senate was created to balance power between more and less powerful states based on region, and the House of Representatives served to represent the citizenry based on population.
The beauty of the American system can be found in its effort to combine democratic ideals with a classical republic to develop a practical democratic system. In fact, it’s this republicanism that makes democracy work in America.
Now that we’ve tackled this issue, let’s get back to the question at hand: is the U.S. a democracy or a republic? Why would any interest group seek to perpetuate a story that says the American system is a Constitutional republic and not a democracy? The answer is all about messaging.
On its most basic level, this kind of argument gives ammo to folks who want to engage in debate surrounding political structures. It may make someone feel as if they know something others don’t, or that they can redirect a conversation toward a topic they feel informed about. It’s empowering, and that’s how the narrative spreads.
This doesn’t seem so bad on the surface, but it’s the implied arguments that are frightening. For instance, it suggests that democracy itself is bad, that it represents big government, and so it should be squashed in favor of republicanism. Democracy, then, is seen as invalid and associated with Democrats, and republics are seen as constitutional and associated with Republicans.
If this seems like too big of a logical jump for you, keep in mind that these kinds of arguments do in fact exist, and often follow reductive and incomplete reasoning. One popular YouTube video paints the “left vs. right” divide as a spectrum with big government on one end, anarchy on the other, and republicanism sitting safely to the right of direct democracy. It’s really a perversion of the political compass, a common tool for understanding political ideologies.
The most frightening element of the argument, though, is that people who subscribe to the idea that democracy is bad can use the idea to justify horrible abuses. For instance, if democracy is associated with mob rule or is seen as somehow unconstitutional, then arguments against it could potentially be used to justify voter suppression efforts in the name of constitutionality, or worse.
The GOP is shrinking and becoming an increasingly white party with all demographic trends working against it. Whites will be less than 50 percent of the U.S. population by 2050. So, this push to crush out the term “democracy” as an enemy of the Constitution probably has to do with asserting the right of the minority to rule over the majority. It is a dangerous mindset that ignores the notions of self-governance and self-rule that are core concepts being expressed whenever someone says, “the U.S. is a democracy.”
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Democracy vs Constitutional Republic
• 13 August 2019
I believe the principal imperative of every American citizen, regardless of age, is to understand and know that the United States of America is a Constitutional Republic NOT a Democracy! It is a fact that the Founding Fathers gave We the People a Constitutional Republic. This fact is recorded in Article IV Section 4 of our Constitution which reads:
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic Violence.” [Emphasis added.]
It is of note that the Founding Fathers did not use the word “democracy” in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States of America. Nor does the word “democracy” appear in the constitutions of any of the fifty States.
For 130 years We the People knew and our posterity were taught that we lived in a Constitutional Republic. Then in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson began the slow and deliberate process of changing the thought and mind of We the People. It was then that the transition from knowing that our nation was a Constitutional Republic began to morph into being a Democracy. He did this when he raised the battle cry, “The world must be made safe for democracy.” He and the other Fabians did this to begin the slow and deliberate march of the Republic toward a Welfare Socialist State.
Their lie has now been repeated over and over again for more than 100 years until now it is embraced as truth. The real truth that we were given a Constitutional Republic is known by few and is lost in obscurity to the majority of We the People.
The Founding Fathers would have said, “The world must be made safe from democracy” because they understood the excesses of a democracy. They took great pains to avoid Democracy for our nation. As stated by Alexander Hamilton, “We are a Republican Government. Real liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of Democracy.”
The Founding Fathers gave us a Constitutional Republic. A Republic differs from a Democracy. A Republic exists only when the system [framework] of government holds both the people and their rulers subject to law. It is a government of laws and not of men. Man becomes free when he recognizes that he is subject to law.
A Republic is government of the people, by the people, for the people. A Democracy is bludgeoning of the people, by the politicians, for their selfish interests.
John Adams, our second President, said, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other.” (Emphasis added)
Thomas Jefferson, our third President, said, “It would be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to silence our fears for the safety of our rights… Confidence is everywhere the parent of despotism. Free government is founded in jealousy, and not in confidence. It is jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power… Our Constitution has accordingly fixed the limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go… In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” (Emphasis added)
The lesson is clear for all who can hear. God is our Ruler. He set up our nation in His own way and time. He appointed for its rulers the humble men of the street; the artisans, the farmers and the builders. Under the influence of His Holy Spirit, as long as they would listen, they worked together and built a mighty nation. The people were sovereign and We the People ruled well and with a mighty hand from March 4, 1789 as a Constitutional Republic. Their elected representatives recognized that the Federal Government only had power as We the People granted it to them within the framework of our 1787 Constitution, with its checks and balances, and Bill of Rights.
Our U. S. Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787 and became the law of the land on June 21, 1788 when New Hampshire was the ninth state to ratify it. It went into operation March 4, 1789. This Divinely inspired document is the best form of government ever entrusted by God to man.
Because of its Divine birthright, the Constitution has written into it both a spirit and a letter. The spirit of the Constitution gives to our republican form of government its life and meaning based on the intent of the Founding Fathers. The letter of the Constitution gives to our government its framework or structure. This structure, as seen by the Founding Fathers, is both vertical and horizontal. Vertically our government is divided between the Federal, the State, and the Local governments always with We the People as the ultimate voice of government. Horizontally, it is divided between the legislative, the executive, and the judicial branches each providing “checks and balances” against the others.
It is well known that, “Power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely.” For this reason our Founding Fathers placed within our Divinely inspired Constitution a “separation of powers” which is founded in our Judeo-Christian heritage. “For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our King; he will save us.” (KJV: Isaiah 33:22) It is this “separation of powers” that prevents despotism and tyranny by those elected and appointed to govern. By this form of government, if we and the guardians of our Divinely inspired Constitution, the Justices of the Supreme Court, are vigilant, we should be able to remain a free people until He rules who has a right to rule – the Lord.
If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, can a nation rise or survive without His divine approval and assistance? Is it possible for an individual or a nation to get ahead by leaving God behind?
In 1787 at the close of the Constitutional Convention, a lady asked Benjamin Franklin, “Well Doctor Franklin, what have we got – a Republic or a Monarchy?” He is quoted as saying, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
May God Bless and Save the United States of America —
Our Constitutional Republic !
