USA, Democracy or Republic?

  John Porter

To: Americans everywhere.
June, 2022

Thank you for your time and attention.

In light of Bill and Hillary Clinton recently stating that "we are on the edge of losing our Democracy", I wish to reply.

        First, please let me be very clear, what I have written here for your consideration is not about the Republican Party, Democrat Party, Independent Party, Libertarian Party, Tea Party or any other Party. It is about an idea conceived over two centuries ago, a country, a people, a document.

       Two hundred and thirty five years ago (1787) a group of men whom we now refer to as the "founding fathers," following a long and bloody battle for their independence from a dictatorial Monarchy, assembled themselves together in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and did their best to establish a country governed in a God-fearing way by representatives who were selected by the people who were to be governed.

       No where in the history of all mankind were there any examples or even political theory in existence that offered them any hope that a republican form of government based on the new concept of consent of the governed, could succeed on a wilderness continent which was much larger than any European state.

       These men met there on the world stage to carry out the first of three acts in this epic political drama, the drafting of the United States Constitution. The final document was the culmination of a fierce political struggle that had been waged for four sweltering summer months in secret behind guarded closed doors. The document sought to reconcile individual personal liberty with the perceived need for a central government with powers to forge a political and economic common market among thirteen separate and sovereign states.

       The next two acts to be performed on this world stage were the ratification of the document and the translation from words on parchment paper to institutional form and structure. In 1789 the first congress approved and sent to the states for ratification, a bill of rights of individual liberty, and additional rights reserved to the states. Those ten amendments, ratified on December 15, 1791, became an extremely vital part of the Constitution and crucial to greatly limiting the power of the Federal Government over both that of the people and separate states. The Republic of the United States of America, an experiment in people governing themselves was now a reality for the first time in the history of man. Newcomers from other countries, willing to be governed by it's Constitution and Bill of Rights, and themselves, came in droves through the established legal immigration process, to this new land of government by the governed.

       I here bring to your attention that the United States of America was formed as a Republic and not a Democracy. All our lives you and I have been conditioned to believe we are a Democracy in America. How long has it been since you have heard of America referred to as a Republic? You see, there was purpose behind the words in the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag referring to our country as, "the Republic for which it stands." Ladies and gentlemen rest assured there is a very good reason the term "democracy" does not exist either in our Constitution or the Declaration of our Independence. A true Democracy is mob rule. Any government set up as a Democracy is the same government we would have if we were set up as a Socialist, Communist, or Marxist government. In these forms the government is a mob ruling over the people with absolutely no rights for individuals or minorities.

       It has been written, "The Founders were extremely knowledgeable about the issue of democracy and feared democracy as much as a monarchy. They understood that the only entity that can take away the people's freedom is their own government, either by being too weak to protect them from external threats or by becoming too powerful and taking over every aspect of life." Democracy and/or Socialism is mob rule by government. The founders of America were all too familiar with democracies/socialism, and deliberately did everything in their power to prevent a Democracy. It has been written, "In a Republic, the sovereignty resides with the people themselves. In a Republic, one may act on his own or through his representatives when he chooses to solve a problem." The people have no obligation to the government; the government is a servant of the people, and obliged to them, for they are its creator and owner. Not only have many politicians, Republican and Democrat, lost sight of this fact, but a great many of the American people.

       A Constitutional Republic has a Constitution that limits the powers of the government. The goal of our founding fathers in forming a Constitutional Republic was to avoid the disastrous extremes of either tyranny (absolute ruler) or "mobocracy." (government mob). I borrowed the following from Darrell Huckaby: "I am tired of hearing about our democracy and the popular vote. We are not a democracy, and a whole lot of people should be really glad about that, too, because in a democracy, mob rule applies. The majority is the boss of everybody, and if we had been a democracy in 1865 slavery would have never been abolished. If we had been a democracy in 1920, the women would have never gotten the vote. If we had been a democracy in 1964 and 1965, those historic pieces of civil rights legislation would never have been approved. In fact, if we had been a democracy in 1776, the Declaration of Independence would never have been adopted because the majority of the colonists were afraid to pursue independence, just like a majority of Americans opposed women’s suffrage and abolition and sweeping civil rights reform. For the record, Abraham Lincoln did not get a majority of the popular vote in 1860, and Bill Clinton did not get a majority of the popular vote in 1992 or 1996. “Oh, yes he did!” screamed one of my Facebook friends this week. “I know Lincoln got the most votes and so did Clinton.” Most means plurality, y’all. A majority is 50 percent plus one. And while we are on the subject, we are not a democratic republic, either, no matter what the revisionist history books might claim. That’s just a term Andrew Jackson coined for political purposes in the 1820s and it stuck with some people. We are a republic, period. We have a federalist form of government where the power is to be divided between the states and the central government and neither is subservient to the other. Both are to receive their powers directly from the people."

       Article IV Section 4 of the Constitution states: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican form of Government"...If we the American people don't stop this and start a reversal of the present trend, the free Republic of America will be lost for generations to come to a Socialist, tyrannical government mob. It begs the question, "Do we really care enough?" There seems to be a possible awakening of all freedom loving Americans to the fact, that a people can become slaves to the government, as well as a plantation owner. Do you really care enough? Do you care enough to elect people to public office who DO care and will do what is necessary to change the trend toward a Socialist Democracy.?. Do you care enough to forward to everyone, and let your children study it?.............Thank you, John Porter.