Democracy or Republic, Which are We?

Good day, Dear Readers,

For some time now, there has been something that the common citizen of America had been saying that has been bothering me. Phrased several different ways and in a variety of contexts, many people are maintaining that the form of government we have here in the United States of America is a Democracy when in fact we are a Constitutional Republic. Now, in the run-up to the 2024 Presidential Election, the corporate media supporting the Progressive Socialist agenda are accusing anyone who dares to correct the miseducated about our Republic of having been brainwashed by President Donald Trump and of being a “threat to the Democracy.” They even trot out so-called ‘experts’ to support this assertion when, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

Now, you my be asking, “why does this matter?” For one thing, the fact that so many people are wrong is proof that our public education system, particularly in the field of Civics, has been failing the students for at least two generations, and is probably continuing to do so. To explain the next thing, I’ll have to provide some background and an explanation of the differences between the two forms of government.

“Democracy” is often described as being a system where every person has a vote…”one man, one vote” is the common catch phrase. That’s fine as far as it goes, but where education has failed is by not imparting the complete definition of Democracy. In a true Democracy every eligible citizen votes on everything…on every question, proposal, law, and regulation, etc., not just on politicians in elected offices. These votes in a Democracy usually end up being based on popularity, emotion, feelings, and opinion instead of the reasonably researched facts about any proposition.

In a “Republic”, particularly a Constitutional Republic, the eligible voters select people they believe will represent them in the government and protect their Rights, Freedom, and best interests under the Law. The common catch phrase in the case of these Representatives is “people of good moral character”, i.e. people the electorate can trust to fulfill their duties. The systems of a Republic slow down the processes of deliberation and debate so that Reason can be injected into the consideration of any question, proposal, law, or regulation, and the Representatives are limited to what they can do by the foundational Laws, Duties, and Limits on Power established in the Constitution.

The Founders of our nation had broken away from a Parliamentary Monarchy that had been riding roughshod over the Rights of the Colonists, so they wanted to decentralize power as much as possible from a central government and keep most of that power in the various individual States. This resulted in the Articles of Confederation, a weak and even ambiguous document that caused numerous problems. President Washington and several of his advisors realized that the United States would be short lived if this wasn’t changed, so a Convention of the States was convened in Philadelphia in 1787 for the purpose of fixing the Articles of Confederation. The delegates quickly realized that the Articles could not be fixed and needed to be replaced, leading to two different proposals. The proposal known as “The Virginia Plan”, based on the principles of political philosophers John Locke, Montesquieu, and Edward Coke, was chosen.

One of the hallmarks of the new Constitutional Republic they created was that Power was spread across three branches of government…with one branch being further divided into two separate chambers…and a series of checks and balances were codified to prevent any one branch or group from seizing power, while giving the National Government very defined powers and responsibilities. The delegates did not even consider a true Democracy because, as educated persons, they knew that a true Democracy was just one step above Mob Rule. In fact one of my favorite quips about Democracy is, “Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.” (Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find the origin of that saying, so I can’t provide an attribution.) They did, however, include a Democratic element. Since the House of Representatives in the Congress was to be the Voice of the People and based on population, each State was broken into Congressional Districts and the eligible voters in each District elected a “person of good moral character” to represent them in Congress.

The Delegates at the Convention further specifically defined how other “Offices of Trust” were to be filled. Since the Senate was to be the Voice of the States in the Congress, the two Senators were to have been selected by the Legislature of the State they represent. The first major victory that the Progressive Socialists had in the early 20th Century was when the public bought their lies about how ‘unfair’ it was that people ‘had no say’ in the selection of their Senators, resulting in the Ratification of the 17th Amendment, creating the election of Senators by popular vote. All along, the people did have a say in the selection of their Senators…in the form of the people they voted into their State Legislature.

Being the Executor and Protector of the Supreme Law of the Land, the President was never supposed to be selected by popular vote; it was supposed to be a blending of the two methods for selecting the members of the two Chambers of Congress and embodied in The Electors, what we now refer to as the Electoral College. Each State was meant to and currently has a number of Electors equal to the number of Representatives plus their two Senators. However, the Delegates believed that it was ‘self-evident’ how the Electors representing the Representatives were supposed to be chosen…each Congressional District was to elect their Elector…that they didn’t bother to spell it out in the Constitution. States quickly found a loophole and their Legislatures started appointing all of the Electors and not just those representing the Senators, thinking it would give the State more power in the Presidency.

Unfortunately, the Progressive Socialists have been targeting the Electoral College for the last three decades and want the President to also be elected by popular vote. The problem lies in one of the reasons the Electors were created in the first place. The Founders knew that if the popular vote was used the four population centers of the States…Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, and Richmond…would control the Presidency, giving the rural citizens of the Nation no say in who holds that office. Fast forward to the 21st century. According to the 2020 U. S. Census, a mere 18 of the 3,243 counties and ‘county-equivalents’ have sufficient population to control who lives in the White House, and all 18 are aligned with the same political party, giving that party control of the Presidency for the foreseeable future and making the other 3,225 counties and ‘county-equivalents’ nothing but serfs to the 18. That’s what true Democracy gets you and why the Founders created a Constitutional Representative Republic.

If you still don’t believe that we’re in a Republic and not a Democracy, let’s go to the words of some of America’s greatest themselves:

According to Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s Delegates, a woman called out to Benjamin Franklin as they were leaving on the final day of the Convention and asked him what sort of government they created. Franklin replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

“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.” – Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States of America

“Republicanism is not the phantom of a deluded imagination: on the contrary, that under no form of government, will laws be better supported — liberty and property better secured — or happiness be more effectually dispensed to mankind.” – George Washington in a letter to Edmund Pendleton, 22 Jan 1795 AD

“In times of insurrection, or invasion, it would be natural and proper that the militia of a neighboring State should be marched into another, to resist a common enemy, or to guard the republic against the violence of faction or sedition.” – Alexander Hamilton in Federalist 29

“The genius of republican liberty seems to demand on one side, not only that all power should be derived from the people, but that those intrusted (sic) with it should be kept in independence on the people, by a short duration of their appointments; and that even during this short period the trust should be placed not in a few, but a number of hands.” – James Madison in Federalist 37

“In the compound republic of America, the power surrendered by the people is first divided between two distinct governments, and then the portion allotted to each subdivided among distinct and separate departments. Hence a double security arises to the rights of the people.” – James Madison in Federalist 51

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” – John Adams in a letter to Jonathan Jackson, 2 Oct 1790

“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.” – Thomas Jefferson in a letter to William Hunter, 11 Mar 1790

“It was by the sober sense of our citizens that we were safely and steadily conducted from monarchy to republicanism, and it is by the same agency alone we can be kept from falling back.” – Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Arthur Campbell, 1797

“If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it.” – Thomas Jefferson in his first Inaugural Address, 1801

“The true foundation of republican government is the equal right of every citizen, in his person and property, and in their management.” – Thomas Jefferson in a letter to H. Tompkinson (a.k.a. Samuel Kercheval), 12 July 1816

“I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours, to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of Freedom.” – Abraham Lincoln in a condolence letter to Mrs. Bixby of Boston upon the loss of her sons in service of the Union Army, 21 Nov 1864

“…and to the Republic for which it stands…” – The Pledge of Allegiance

There are many, many more examples of those who came before us identifying the United States as a Republic and not a Democracy. And this brings me to ‘the other thing’. This attempt to twist and misidentify our nation is actually part of a long term plan by the Progressive Socialists to erode and degrade the Constitution until it is weak enough to be replaced with the oligarchy they desire. Don’t take my word for it. Progressive Socialist icons such as Hebert Croly, Woodrow Wilson, Rexford Tugwell, Harold Ickes, and Franklin D. Roosevelt all wrote extensively about this plan in their personal papers. Just look it up.

I have and will continue to stipulate that our Republic has Democratic elements in how it works…at the State level more so than the Federal level…but that does not make us a Democracy. Look at it this way, in a Democracy, all you would have to do is get a simple majority…50.01% of the voters…to agree to make something legal. Without the protections of a Constitutional Republic, it could be anything, even something as heinous as slavery.

Think about it.

Until next time, Dear Readers, be well…

© 2009, 2024 James P. Rice