On this Fourth of July I woke up and turned on the news to
watch average Americans try and answer questions about their country. What a
mess. I thought that I would spend my morning
writing about the founding of this country.
We must all remember that the revolution that started this
country was a top down revolution. By
that I mean it was started by the well off and the educated men who were
already leaders In their community. They formed a group called "The Sons of
Liberty" whose aim was to protest the taxes that were paid to England without any
representation in Parliament. They were really upset, not by taxes but, paying
them to England with no say in how they were spent. As their decent was ignored
by King George they fostered the idea of a revolution and a new nation.
When the Revolutionary war was over these learned men had to
form a federal government to run the country. Many Americans think they formed
a Democratic government. That is not the case. They did form a Republic for a
very good reason.
By definition, a republic is a representative form of
government that is ruled according to a charter, or constitution, and a
democracy is a government that is ruled according to the will of the majority.
Although these forms of government are often confused, they are quite
different. The main difference between a republic and a democracy is the
charter or constitution that limits power in a republic, often to protect the
individual's rights against the desires of the majority. In a democracy, the
majority rules in all cases, regardless of any consequences for individuals or
for those who are not in the majority on an issue. This was done for two reasons. The founding
fathers did not want majority rule because they themselves were not in the majority.
The other reason was that a true Democracy could, in time, turn into mob
rule. It was because of these two
reasons that they tried to stay away from a true democracy,
A true democracy is rare because of the potential for it to
turn into what might be called "mob rule." This occurs when the
majority makes decisions that benefit itself at the expense of the minority.
For example, a racial, religious or socioeconomic class that consists of more
than 50 percent of the voting population could — theoretically — vote to give
itself certain benefits or to oppress or restrict those in the minority. In a
republic or a constitutional democracy, however, the charter or constitution
typically guarantees certain rights to individuals or groups, which prevents
those rights from being taken away or infringed upon by the will of the
majority.
The representative republic they formed, as outlined by the
Constitution, allowed representatives of the people make decision for the good
of the citizens.
Make no mistake these founding fathers and other state
leaders did not want to give the citizens too much power. They were very
careful in the writing of the constitution.
The Electorate only had the power to elect members of the
house for two year terms. Senators were appointed by the states. The President was not elected, and is not today,
by popular vote but the Electoral College. The Judicial branch of the Federal
Government is also appointed. In effect we have very little control of our
leaders. The 17th. Amendment did change the constitution to allow the
majority to directly elect their Senators because men of means often just bought a seat in the Senate.
I just wish we could add another amendment to allow for
direct election of our President by popular vote. If we had that power George
Bush would never been president because more Americans actually voted for Gore.
We are not a democracy but a representative republic. Happy 4yh. Of July everyone.
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