“Democracy is the most vile form of government... 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.”

-President James Madison

Democracy or Republic

Ask almost any American what kind of government we have. Invariably, the answer will be, “We have a democracy.” For some reason, whether innocent ignorance, or deliberate semantic deception, the term “democracy” has become synonymous with the American system of government. Since our public schools have completely abandoned teaching what our country was and how it was actually founded, it is no great surprise that so few of us really understand what system of government we have and how it was constructed.

The Founding Fathers never used the term democracy in our Constitution or Declaration of Independence. They, instead, insisted that a great republic had been formed. Our nation’s Founders absolutely abhorred the idea of a purely “democratic” form of government, with good reason. To further illustrate this point, when asked what kind of government had just been formed, Benjamin Franklin replied “A republic…if you can keep it.” So, what’s the difference?

A constitutional republic, like a democracy, is essentially a representative form of government. What this simply means is that the people select, by an electoral process, officials who will be their governmental representatives. That is where the similarities end. In a constitutional republic, the elected officials must govern solely within the constraints of constitutional law that expressly limits the government’s power over its citizens. In our case, the United States Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and Bill of Rights, provide the outline for our governmental system and set explicit limits on governmental power and authority. This is especially true for the federal government.

Additionally, a constitutional republic has its governmental power segregated among three branches. The United States Federal Government is divided into the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. Each branch has a specific area of responsibility and influence, as well as strict limits on what it can or cannot do. This separation allows for a balance of power, rather than having power concentrated into a single area, as one would see in a monarchy, dictatorship, or, dare I say, democracy.

This purposeful separation of power was a direct result of having been governed by a monarchy, in which a single man has full authority to decree laws into existence as he sees fit. After being subjected to rule by a monarch, the Founding Fathers sought to expressly limit federal power and place much of the legislative decision making that would affect the populace into the hands of the states. They surmised that the states should be capable of running themselves without external interference. In this model, the citizens and their elected representatives would decide their governance, provided of course that all legislation was in accordance with the documents on which the republic was founded.

To further explain the premises upon which a republic is founded, it is necessary to note that there must be “absolutes”. For example, all people, born or unborn, have the absolute right to life and liberty. The Founding Fathers framed our country, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of using the principle that absolutes do exist, and that we all have absolute, God-given rights. While the Founding Fathers had varying beliefs on theology, they solidly agreed that we, as people, have intrinsic rights granted to us by our Creator, subject to the authority of no man, government, or monarch.

Included in this protected set of absolute rights is the right for people to worship as they please. While the Founding Fathers believed and documented that our rights undeniably come from God, they also made certain that no restrictions would be placed on worship and that the government had absolutely no right to mandate any form of worship. This was a natural reaction to the persecution that was experienced in England (and elsewhere in Europe), which was responsible for driving those seeking religious freedom to the New World.

At the risk of belaboring the point, I’ll say again that in our constitutional republic, the rights of all people are protected and the power of government is to be strictly limited. The purpose of the United States Constitution was not to empower government. Its purpose was to restrict governmental power, because the power resides with the people. If, at any point, the power becomes centralized in government, the direct result is tyranny. Plato said that, “The price of apathy toward public affairs is to be ruled over by evil men.”

The lion’s share of this article has been dedicated to discovering what a constitutional republic is, primarily because we will not know what we are losing if we don’t know what we have. With that said, let’s take a brief look at what a democracy is, and specifically why we don’t have one and don’t want one. In the simplest terms possible, a democracy is nothing more than majority rule. The people allegedly have the power, which is represented in government by elected representatives that are supposed to do the will of the people.

The key point is that the majority of the people have the power and the minority has no power whatsoever. There is absolutely no guarantee for individual liberty or representation. In a truly democratic system, majority rule is the name of the game. In a democracy, the idea of greater good can often be seen as the lesser of two evils. That almost sounds like the philosophy we’ve been using in our elections in recent years, doesn’t it?

Let’s for a moment, take the idea of majority rule to its most extreme, albeit, logical conclusion. In 1930s Germany, the “party” in charge, who gained power through a process not dissimilar to what we are currently witnessing in America, decided that they (the majority) have the right to determine who should reproduce, live, or die. The overall majority of German society was unaffected by the new policies. But what of those who were affected? What voice did they have to represent them? Should a person who has a club foot be forcibly sterilized? Can people be declared “sub-human” and be exterminated? In a pure democracy, if the majority wills it, then it can (and did) happen. In a democracy, the will of the masses supersedes the rights of the individual. Let us not forget that history repeats itself, particularly upon those who fail to learn from it. This is precisely why we must protect and defend our republic that is being stripped from us!

If a republic goes awry, it will be at the hands of legislators, not representing the will of the people, who open the door for extreme powers to be granted to one governmental branch as a result of some event, whether real or contrived. Sound familiar? It should. It all began with FDR demanding “special powers” to combat the Great Depression and has snowballed since. Our nation’s presidents have issued executive orders that directly contradict our founding documents, have declared war unilaterally without Congressional consent, and have established, by decree, a veritable dictatorship to be instituted when a state of “emergency” is declared. We are being sold up the river to the North American Union, we are watching our borders be dissolved, and we are watching our freedoms being stripped daily.

We, as a people, as a nation, are guilty of being poor stewards of freedom and of our beloved republic. We have allowed our nation to be literally hijacked before our eyes, yet we stood silent. We have lived lives of apathetic comfort. We have allowed our schools to be dumbed-down deliberately. We have watched the moral fabric of our society unwinding, but we took no action. We have allowed our media to give us our opinions and thoughts. We seek our opinions from talking heads on radio and television, but never bother to lift the yoke of responsibility onto our own shoulders and make our own decisions.

Our Founding Fathers took action. They found tyranny unacceptable and called for change. They had their own “King George” and his police state ruling them with an iron fist. Now we find ourselves in a situation that is uncannily similar. Will we act, or will we live in quiet servitude? Alex E. Jones recently said in his film “End Game”, that “The answer to 1984 is 1776!” Amen.

I urge every reader to take time to go to National Archives (www.archives.gov) and read the documents on which our nation was founded. If you are not stirred by them, then you please see the below quotation. Consider what we had, what we lost, and how we might Restore The Republic!

I will close with words from a man whose words should resonate with us today, just as they did over two centuries ago. Just remember: If you are not part of the solution, you most assuredly are part of the problem.

“If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.”

-Samuel Adams

Jason Starck

Missouri Constitution Party