Yesterday many people across this country celebrated our great “democracy.” Many veterans were recognized and remembered for their service in helping keep our “democracy” safe. But what does all this really mean?
We celebrate our government, but what form of government do we really have? When we say an oath to serve our country we pledge allegiance to the Republic for which our United States stands. Is that the same thing as the Democracy we talk about today? Our schoolbooks say they are one in the same.
It is interesting to note that the word “Democracy” is not used in our Constitution, and was not used by our government until around the 1930’s. In the 1930’s, FDR declared a bank holiday and told all US citizens they had to surrender all their gold to the government. (Under what Constitutional authority?) Also came FDR’s “New Deal” which brought socialistic services such as Social Security. It has been since this time our government began calling itself a Democracy, and not before. What follows is a section from a 1928 publication by the War Department for the education of our troops. During the time of these actions by FDR, this manual suddenly was withdrawn from all public sources. It was years later before copies were again made available to The People.
Training Manual No. 20000-25 War Department Washington, November 30, 1928 Citizenship Prepared under the direction of the Chief of Staff This Manual Supersedes Manual of Citizenship Training Democracy: A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of “direct” expression. Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic-negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether it be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences. Results in demagogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy. Republic: Authority is derived through the election by the people of public officials best fitted to represent them. Attitude toward property is respect for laws and individual rights, and a sensible economic procedure. Attitude toward law is the administration of justice in accordance with fixed principles and established evidence, with a strict regard to consequences. A greater number of citizens and extent of territory may be brought within its compass. Avoids the dangerous extreme of either tyranny or mobocracy. Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment and progress. Is the “standard form” of government throughout the world.Do these sound like the same forms of government? Are we still celebrating the same form of government that was fought for 200 years ago? The Constitution was considered to be a “great experiment” in freedom, something that had never been done before. Yet Democracies had certainly been done before at that time, and it seems that our founding fathers did not want to deal with one.
“Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
-John Adams
“In popular governments [democracies], minorities [individuals] constantly run much greater risk of suffering from arbitrary power than in absolute monarchies…”
-John Adams, “On Government”, (1778)
“In all cases where a majority are united against a common interest or passion, the interests of the minority are in danger!”
-James Madison
What does this mean? Aren’t we often told that Democracy equals freedom? Isn’t a free country one where the people can express their will? In reading the writings of the founding fathers, it seems they did not exactly feel so.
“We are now forming a Republican form of government. Real liberty is not found in the extremes of Democracy, but in moderate governments. If we incline too much toward Democracy, we shall soon shoot into a Monarchy, or some other form of Dictatorship.”
-Alexander Hamilton
“In questions of power, then, let no more be said of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution”
-Thomas Jefferson
To paraphrase an example by John R Beaman, consider a typical B grade Western movie plot. An outlaw rides into town and provokes a tavern owner into an unfair gunfight, killing him. The sheriff arrives on the scene and takes the villain into custody. Back at the scene of the shooting the crowd begins to discuss what happened, and come to the conclusion that the villain should be hanged. This, here, is a Democracy, the will of the majority! The crowd becomes a mob and proceeds to the jail with clubs, torches, and pitchforks to lynch the villain. Here the Sheriff confronts the mob (the democracy) and issues the voice of reason. He says that he is there to protect the rights of the individual, whether they be guilty or innocent, and that the villain has the right to due process of law. The Sheriff is the voice of a Republic that protects the rights of the individual, even in the face of the contrary will of the majority.
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