The US is not a Democracy

Posted by $ blarman 7 years, 1 month ago to Government
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“…the destiny of the republican model of government…is staked on an experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people”

-- George Washington (Farewell Address)

Have the peoples' failure in this regard been the cause of downfall of our system?
SOURCE URL: http://freedomoutpost.com/the-u-s-is-not-a-democracy-so-what-is-it-part-1/


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    Posted by freedomforall 7 years, 1 month ago
    Every time I hear the word democracy relating to American government I think "failure."
    Democracy has always failed and it will always fail because it is a very flawed scheme for government that has always been manipulated to centralize power in a few while destroying the liberty of the people.
    America was never intended to be a democracy.
    Freedom is not free. People must continually resist expansion of government to stay free.
    Americans have been complacent and have been brainwashed continually by sources biased toward statism and a large strong central government that treats the people as its inferiors and as its economic slaves. Every major media source is biased in this way. Virtually all public education is biased in this way. Neither of those primary sources should be trusted to tell the truth. They have been lying for generations and they will never stop because they have a vested interest in the expansion of government and the destruction of free markets and individual liberty.

    The article quotes George Washington's description of American government as a "republican model of government".
    It was not a republic, nor was it a democracy, not was it any combination of those two terms.
    It was intended as a "republican form" of government as the article says.
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    • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 7 years, 1 month ago
      Democracy is another word for mob rule. While Democracy could work reasonably well in small societies it is cancerous to a large society because as Ben Franklin said "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic."

      When the Republic is gone you have tyranny.
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    • Posted by Herb7734 7 years ago
      You left out the difference between a Republic, and a Constitutional Republic. It was and is the very sane declaration of Independence and the Constitution that sets this Republic apart.
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  • Posted by jimslag 7 years ago
    I live in that little blue streak that runs down the middle of the red Southwest. Between Colorado and New Mexico for the last 30 years or so with time off for serving in the military. New Mexico swings from blue to red on Governors but it's heart is that blue runs the State, both in Senators and state politicians. If it were richer, it would be like California but it is dirt poor, even though the politicians don't think so. Being a veteran and older, yes, I believe in the Pledge of Allegiance and the US Constitution. I don't like what our government has become, I don't believe in the "nanny state" that we are dealing with. I need our government to protect our (Citizen's) Rights, not to run my life. I do a good enough job destroying my own life, I don't need the government to ruin it for me. Ben Franklin said "a Republic, if you can keep it", George Washington said a Republican form of government. Take your pick but it is not supposed to be a democracy.
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  • Posted by philosophercat 7 years ago
    The founders studied the entire history of the forms of government. They were citizens of England and understood the problems with a Parliament without a constitution. They agreed with Locke on individual sovereignty but had to create a new form of a limited government to protect it. They feared above all Democracy as rule by faction which is what we are descending into. It is the philosophers who are to blame not the productive people. The people trusted the philosophers who betrayed them. Support the nearest Objectivist philosopher. Its your best investment in protecting our Republic.
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    • Posted by Maritimus 7 years ago
      Hello "...cat:,

      "The founders studied the entire history of the forms of government." I think that this is the "root cause" of the success of our Founders. They EDUCATED themselves and then applied that acquired knowledge and understanding to design the form of government that they thought to be optimal.

      This is what I consider an axiom (i.e. a self-evident truth): "People get the governments they deserve." In the Freedom Outpost article that blarman posted, the author rhetorically asks if the destiny of North Koreans is in their own hands and then answers "Of course not." I could not disagree with him more. It takes a bloody rebellion to topple a tyranny. The Founders faced numerous people who disagreed with them and sided with the British. But they believed in the cause so much to be willing to risk life, wealth and honor for the victory. They won and we all are the beneficiaries.

      It should be clear from the above that the key to our future is education. The misguided ideologues of the collectivism and, among them, some malicious ones have impregnated the educational systems and spew the poison daily. The evidence of utter ignorance about some of these themes among many of the young is everywhere. Many times the level of the "intellectual" discourse and of the writing is simply appalling. Do you remember how many American "intellectuals" admired Stalin?

      As an aside. I do not propose witch hunts or persecution. But the TRUTH must be the supreme value. People, but especially the politicians and government officials must learn to say: "I don't know." We all will have to be willing to put in all the necessary efforts and resources so that our great grandchildren may enjoy the rights of liberty, property and pursuit of happiness as well as the rights enumerated in the BILL.

      Do you "see" that you have touched a nerve?
      +100 if I could!

      All the best.
      Sincerely,
      Maritimus
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  • Posted by Jstork 7 years ago
    Much the same in Canada. I end up voting for the lesser of the evils. The one who I think will do the least harm. Once voted in, the government has been recently allocating the taxpayer's money into projects that reward the people who are less responsible and have not been making good decisions. Now, some of the taxpayer's money goes to provide fentanyl antidote to police officers, and other emergency personnel. In effect: I pay to keep some person who makes a poor decision and overdoses on fentanyl, alive. Our money is also going to sites where drug users can procure clean needles and other requirements so they can shoot up. Now: our provincial government is paying people to replace incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs with LED's, and non-programmable thermostats with programmable ones for people who sign up for the program. I; Joe taxpayer, am paying for that. To top it all off, many of the ones who already have made the switch aren't being reimbursed and are paying the wonderful new Carbon Tax. Responsible government; my foot. Socialist system, here we come. I did not sign up for this.
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  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 7 years ago
    Answer, partially but a large part of it was the dumbing down of the citizens, the infliction of dependents upon the cities and the prevention of assimilation of some of our people.

    Demonacracy, being a philosophy of total inclusion was promoted because those that promoted it were found wanting, found without conscience and found to be unwashed.
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  • Posted by chad 7 years ago
    The republic has failed its way into a socialist democracy where you can vote for the leader who will take your property, your liberty and your rights. You can vote for 'either' side and the results will be the same. As Jefferson once pointed out if the government took over the schools it would teach that slavery is freedom and raise the citizens it needed that would demand slavery thinking they were free.
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    • Posted by $ 7 years ago
      Can you point me to the citation for Jefferson's wording there? It sounds to me like it would be very useful in arguments to abolish the Department of Education...
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      • Posted by chad 7 years ago
        If I remember correctly it was in a book of letters that Jefferson had written Washington while he was president. George was doing several things that Jefferson disagreed with including starting a central bank issuing fiat currency. I will try to locate the book in my library and let you know.
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  • Posted by mia767ca 7 years ago
    i would argue that the U.S. has become a democracy on the way to oligarchy and totalitarianism...and the that is the importance of epistemology, logic, and reason...the art of the non-contradictory identification of the facts of reality...(see David Kelley...evidences of the senses and logic)...we started as a republic where the vote was the property of an industrious man or woman...tyrants was less likely to be elected by intelligent, hard-working individuals...but a govt-educated citizenry creates the stage for a democracy and tyranny of the majority...hence 20th/21st century u.s.....
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    • Posted by $ 7 years ago
      And as we can see from the government takeover of the education system, you are spot on. Anyone who knows the Constitution, the Declaration, and has studied them and their meanings can't help but see in our society today the vast departures from that system that was the topic of much heated debate by the most learned men of the time. I think we'd do well to start teaching an appreciation for the Founding in grade school and make mandatory an entire semester class in high school on the Constitution. I know if education were voluntary and privately run it would be part of my children's education.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 7 years ago
    I think you are premature in putting "downfall" in the present tense. Heading that way for sure, but with still a possibility to succeed. The ideal of the world's first Constitutional Republic has not quite faded away as yet. Unfortunately it is getting there but the Trump victory has slowed the dissolution down, and who knows, there might be a turn around in the future.
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    • Posted by $ 7 years ago
      While I would like to believe that, I look at how hard it has been to get a Constitutional Convention going and how resistant the old guard Republicans are to righting the ship along with the determined actions of the Democrats and their targeted political activism to scuttle it and I fear that the time for a peaceful return to Constitutional values is past.
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      • Posted by Herb7734 7 years ago
        Nothing happens quickly in Washington. Look at how Trump's work ethic is perceived. They gape in wonder at someone who actually works It will take time to turn the ship of state to the right, let alone to make a 180. It has taken the left 100 years to get the USA this far off course, and they are relentless. It's the price of freedom, I guess. We could speed things up with a benevolent dictatorship for about 10 years but I can already hear A.R. howling from her grave.
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  • Posted by wiggys 7 years ago
    maybe the possibly new thinking that has started within the population will stop the heading towards a democracy and maybe learn and understand we were started as a republic.
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