Saving Our Democracy is a Bumpersticker – REPUBLISHED – WORD PRESS

There’s no need for me comment on what we all watched and heard last Thursday.  Instead, I’m going to write about what I wish would have been the subject of Thursday’s debate, and thus expose the biggest canard the Left is trying to foist upon the American public, i.e., that the upcoming election is about “saving our democracy.”  The refrain ‘democracy is on the ballot’ is hyperbolic nonsense designed for those who do not understand that when the Founders met in Philadelphia in 1787 to draft our Constitution, they never intended to create a democracy, their goal was to create a government centered around idea of individual liberty; something that is impossible to do in a democracy.

In recent years the democrats have put forth notions such as expanding the Supreme Court, electing a president by direct vote, making Washington D.C. a state, and combining less populous states such as North and South Dakota – all of which have absolutely nothing to do with “saving our democracy” and everything to do with using democracy’s fatal flaw, i.e., that it is not representative of all constituencies, to acquire more power and create a permanent one-party system of government.

Recall how after the 2016 election Hillary Clinton was interviewed ad nauseum bemoaning the fact that she won the popular vote but lost the election because of an “antiquated” Electoral College.  What was truly frightening about Hillary’s caterwauling was that she was serious!  This woman was almost President of the United States, and she doesn’t understand the rationale behind electoral system of the nation she wanted to lead?  Give me a break!  That’s tantamount to Larry Bird or Michael Jordan not understanding how the 24-second shot clock works.

The American public school system as well as our colleges and universities have done a terrible job of educating young people about how the will of the people is better represented by a republican (small R) form of government than a democracy.  And once we get our arms around that concept, it becomes clear why so many of the Left’s ideas are downright dangerous.  But that shouldn’t be surprising considering that its leaders neither understand nor embrace the Founders’ vision.  As political pundit Charlie Kirk astutely points out, a republican form of government allows people that might agree on almost nothing to still engage in self-government, while in a democracy, arbitrary social movements such as the cancel culture will thrive.

The Founders understood the dangers of a democracy as a form of government i.e., that two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner was not representative government, and realized the new nation needed a system of government that acknowledged if men were angels, government wouldn’t be necessary, but also understood that men are not angels, and therefore they created a constitutional republic to enshrine & safeguard individual liberty.

Modern democracy is little more than quick up or down votes.  But the Founders weren’t concerned with getting the work of government done quickly, they understood that public policy required more than simple yeas or nays, and what they really feared was the government doing ‘harmful things’ quickly.  And in their focus to protect individual liberty, they created a system of government that was slow, deliberate, intentional and representative.

The Founders created a nation that arguably has done more good, for more people in the shortest amount of time than any nation in history.  Which isn’t to say we don’t have faults, or that we haven’t made mistakes, but no nation on earth has corrected its mistakes with more passion than has the United States.  The republican process has eradicated slavery, given women the right to vote and done so many other things to represent the entirety of citizenry.  And they were done slowly, deliberately and at times painfully.

As 248 years of history has proven, the best way to determine the will of the people is through states’ rights and’ directives.  If North Carolina wants decentralized gun laws and school choice but neighboring South Carolina does not, well, each state to its own.  And being republic and not democracy allows us to recognize, respect and integrate the values of and ideas of all Americans irrespective of whether they live in “conservative” Manhattan Kansas or “liberal” Manhattan Island.

The Founders understood human nature being what it is, that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and that people were likely to abuse it, which is why they insisted that the will of the people be expressed by involving all the states.  The Founders also understood that in a democracy the self-serving nature of human beings would be revealed, but more importantly, that while local was better than national, the individual states still had to have influence on a national level.  To accomplish this, they embraced the delicate balance between the Jeffersonian and Hamiltonian visions of government and embodied them in a federal Constitution that even had an amendment process to boot.

Happy Fourth of July!

Quote of the day: “The greatest moral claim of the political left is that they are for the masses in general and the poor in particular.  That is also their greatest fraud.  It even fools many leftists themselves.” – Thomas Sowell.