“A Democracy is the vilest form of Government there is.”
Thomas Paine, Father of the American Revolution.
My post Best Way 2 Control the Masses has garnered some insightful comments. One reader said:
Well, here’s some nice fellow, who doesn’t know that the United States is BOTH a “democracy” and a “republic.” The statements are not in opposition to each other, but relate to different aspects of government,
DEMOCRACY: Comes from the Greek demos = people, and kratia = rule of. So, democracy is the rule of the people and relates to where sovereignty is vested. Democracy is for example opposed to plutocracy, where sovereignty is vested in the rich, or theocracy, where sovereignty is vested in religious functionaries, or oligarchy, or other various and sundry possibilities. But sovereignty needs to be vested somewhere, and this fellow seems to be quite uniformed, when he asserts that the United States is not a democracy.
REPUBLIC: Comes from the Latin, rei = rule of, and publicae = people. This distinguishes an hereditary from a non-hereditary succession to government office. The United States, Russia, Iran, and Angola, China, and Taiwan for example, are republics, while the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium, are not republics because they are monarchies and have hereditary succession of rulers.
I won’t comment on the remainder of the assertions by this fellow except to suggest that no one should bet the farm on his understanding of political science. [link]
He sounds like he knows what he’s talking about, and is probably more of an expert in political science than I. But, thanks to online resources like Wikipedia, I can educate myself and, at least, seem a little smarter than I really am.
So, here’s what I was talking about:
The United States is a “constitutional republic.” [link]
The word “democracy” does not appear in the US Constitution. It does not appear in the Declaration of Independence.
Democracy is majority rule… in its simplest form 50% + 1.
A Republic, is defined as “a state where the head of state and other officials are elected as representatives of the people, and must govern according to existing constitutional law that limits the government’s power over citizens.”
John Adams, (founding father, second US president, co-framer of our constitution) defined “democracy” as the “tyranny of the majority.”
He wanted an “empire of laws, not of men” to protect the individual and minorities. He advocated separation of powers (the now-familiar executive, legislative, and judicial branches) with these checks and balances as a means to limit the government’s power over its citizens.
Towards the end of his life John Adams declared, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy that did not commit suicide.“
Why Do They Keep Telling Us We Have Democracy?
Are our representatives really that ignorant? Is the president? (OK, better not to answer that…) Or, could it be that’s the form of government their superiors (the Shadow Powers) want?
Consider this:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda minister.
Then consider this from a pamphlet titled “Democracy or Republic, Which Is It?” by Benedict LaRosa:
“Democracy concentrates power into the hands of the few organized and clever enough to manipulate the masses. It is characterized by a communistic attitude toward property and monopolistic enterprises. Government thus becomes an instrument for the redistribution of wealth as well as the security of the state.It is the rule of men, the dictatorship of the majoritywithout regard to the consequences upon individuals or society.” [link]
This sure sounds like what’s happened to us in the US in the last fifty years.
How to Replace Our Republic with Mob Rule (“Democracy”)
Don’t these look like the steps the Shadow Powers have taken over the last few decades? Aren’t they even now accelerating their plans?
1) Destroy the constitution.
“The Constitution is just a goddamned piece of paper.” G.W. Bush. [link]
2) Control the education system (to prevent an informed citizenry).
3) Centralize power in one branch of government (the executive).
Notice how the number of “executive orders” and “signing statements” has exploded? [link] Clinton launched the Kosovo war on an executive order.
4) Install an easily-manipulated figurehead as head of the executive branch (President Bush)
Will Obama be different? So far, it doesn’t look like it.
5) Advocate gun control so the populace cannot defend themselves from tyranny. [link]
Remember how the gov’t illegally confiscated citizen’s firearms door-to-door in New Orleans? Watch them tackle and slug a retired woman to get her gun. [YouTube]
6) Increase gov’t handouts (welfare, etc.) and regulation/control over activities.
Great Quotes:
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!”
– Ben Franklin
“… the 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy.” – Ales Carey
“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“Apparently, a democracy is a place where numerous elections are held at great cost without issues and with interchangeable candidates.”
– Gore Vidal
“As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
H. L. Mencken in The Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920
and the best one:
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.
It can only exist until voters discover they can vote themselves generous benefits from the public treasury. From that moment, the majority always votes for candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”
– Alexander Tytler, The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic
Filed under: > Scott's Soapbox | Tagged: democracy or republic |
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Meltdown 2011 
We are not citizens, we are The People, Lords, Kings, Queens…..
To truly understand the Republic, you must all know this, and spread this word, it is a good word indeed!
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.
It can only exist until voters discover they can vote themselves generous benefits from the public treasury. From that moment, the majority always votes for candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.”
– Alexander Tytler
This is so fitting today that it’s downright scary.
Suzette,
I can respect that.
“Indisputably, this nation was founded as a republic and its leaders were justifiably afraid of a democracy, lest it destroy the nation they had risked their lives to establish”
The redefining of “democracy” is one of the most disastrous and potentially fatal blows America has ever suffered, and the most frustrating thing about it is that it is such a blatant lie. The simple truth is that America is not now, never was, and was never intended to be a “democracy.”
The political systems known as “democracy” and “republic” were created and named concurrently about 3,000 years ago in ancient Greece in what are known as “city-states”: cities that were in bare-knuckle competition with each other even though their citizens were all the same nationality, Greek.
The one thing both systems had in common was the idea of self rule; that is, the absence of a “king” by any name. The distinction between them was that, in democracies, the qualified voters (which included every “free” citizen — yes, the ancient Greeks had their helots; lower, “serf” class people) met together and enacted all laws and made all decisions directly for the state. In the republics, the qualified voters elected representatives who, in turn, met together and enacted all laws and made all decisions for the state. Obviously, any political unit that got too large for all its qualified voters to meet together at one time in one place could not be a democracy, even if it wanted to be.
Also, keep in mind the fact that, contrary to what every 20th Century “liberal” (closet communist) propagandist tells you, “democracies” have never been classless societies, and have never been governments “of all the people.”
Furthermore, even then, even 2,500 to 3,000 years ago, the dangers and failures of a democracy had revealed themselves, as shown by writers of the times.
About 370 BC, Plato wrote: “A democracy is a state in which the poor, gaining the upper hand, kill some and banish others, and then divide the offices among the remaining citizens equally.”
About 126 BC, Polybius wrote: “The common people feel themselves oppressed by the grasping of some, and their vanity is flattered by others. Fired with evil passions, they are no longer willing to submit to control, but demand that everything be subject to their authority. The invariable result is that government assumes the noble names of free and popular, but becomes in fact the most execrable thing, mob rule.”
And about 63 BC, Seneca, a Roman wrote: “Democracy is more cruel than wars or tyrants.”
More than 2,000 years before this nation was founded, democracy had been recognized by its creators for the political and economic failure it is.
Colonial American Experience — Subsequent to declaring their independence from Britain, the colonies established their own, individual governments and, apparently in the enthusiasm of independence, most of them incorporated “democratic” standards for qualifying voters in their systems. According to some of the framers of the Constitution and to many 20th Century historians, this act very nearly caused the political death of the infant nation.
Specifically, most of the colonies voted themselves all manner of benefits without any apparent reflection on the ramifications of their acts. As a result, the individual colonies as well as the Confederation were confronted with massive debts and zero funds with which to pay them off. They had no credit — either financial or psychological — anywhere in the world. They were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy and facing the very real threat of being taken over by some European nation.
This crisis, created by the financial and social irresponsibility of “democracy,” compelled the convening in 1787 — barely four years after wining their war for independence — of the convention that led to the writing of our Constitution. During those debates, the danger and failure of democracy as a political system was known and pointed out.
Edmund Jennings Randolph, in debate, stated: “Our chief danger arises from the democratic parts of our constitutions.”
Alexander Hamilton, in debate, said: “Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate government.”
Elbridge Gerry, in debate, said: “The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue, but are the dupes of pretended patriots.”
And after the Constitution had been adopted: Alexander Hamilton, in Senate: “It has been observed that a pure democracy, if it were practicable, would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies, in which the people themselves deliberated, never possessed one feature of good government. Their very character was tyranny: their figure deformity.”
John Adams, in a letter to John Taylor, wrote: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”
James Madison said: “…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.”
Thomas Jefferson, in the drafts of the Kentucky Resolutions, wrote: “In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”
(Yes, Democratic Party propagandists and their dupes insist that Thomas Jefferson was a Democrat. And he did, in a response to a European correspondent, say, “…we are all democrats; we are democratic Republicans and democratic Federalist…” and explained that, to him, “democratic” was not a political system but a political condition; specifically, a system in which the government recognizes no social classes and creates no social classes. Where, as far as law go, “all men are created equal.” Jefferson, of course, acknowledged that all humans are not equal, in hardly any way — he was just adamant that the laws should make no acknowledgment of these differences, should bestow no benefit or civil advantage to a part of the citizenry because of differences. That was as far as his “democratism” went, which, obviously, is the exact opposite of what “Democrats” today believe.)
John Adams, in a letter to William Cunningham in March 1804, wrote: “Democracy is Lovelace and the people is Clarissa” (an allegoric reference to popular literature of the time, in which Lovelace “did Clarissa wrong”).
Not only were our Founding Fathers adamantly opposed to creating a “democratic” system, they were unanimous in giving this nation a republic as its political system.
Alexander Hamilton, June 26, 1788, stated: “There are few positions more demonstrable than that there should be in every republic some permanent body to correct the prejudices, check the intemperate passions, and regulate the fluctuations of a popular assembly.”
Alexander Hamilton, also in 1788: “It is of great importance in a republic not only to guard against the oppression of its rulers, but to guard one part of society against the injustice of the other part.”
George Washington, April 30, 1789: “The…destiny of the republican model of government (is) justly considered as deeply, perhaps as finally stacked, on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”
Thomas Jefferson, March 11, 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, 1791: “Government in a well constituted republic requires no belief from man beyond what his reason authorizes.”
Thomas Jefferson, July 30, 1795: “The revolution forced them (the “people of America” — author) to consider the subject for themselves, and the result was an universal conversion to republicanism.”
Thomas Jefferson, March 12, 1799: “The body of the American people is substantially republican. But their virtuous feelings have been played upon by some fact with more fiction, they have been the dupes of artful manoeuvres, & made for a moment to be willing instruments in forging chains for themselves.”
Thomas Jefferson, March 4, 1801: “If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form…”
Thomas Jefferson, Jan. 18, 1802: “The body of our people … have ever had the same object in view, to wit, the, maintenance of a federal, republican government…”
Thomas Jefferson, Jan. 13, 1813: “This is my belief of it; it is that on which I have acted…to administer the government according to its genuine republican principles…”
Thomas Jefferson, in the Anas: “He (John Adams — author) has since thoroughly seen that his constituents were devoted to republican government…”
Thomas Jefferson, in the Anas: “…and I fondly hope … that the motto of the standard to which our country will forever rally, will be ‘federal union, and republican government…”
As historians Charles Austin Beard and Mary Ritter Beard wrote (1939): “At no time, at no place, in solemn convention assembled, through no chosen agents, had the American people officially proclaimed the United States to be a democracy. The Constitution did not contain the word or any word lending countenance to it, except possibly the mention of ‘We the people,’ in the preamble … When the Constitution was framed, no respectable person called himself a democrat.”
Rest of the article is here:
http://www.citizensforaconstitutionalrepublic.com/gardner10-27-04.html
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for educational purposes only.
Suzette,
This link is a real gem! Thanks for posting.
BTW, have you gotten any silver bullion yet (for protection)?
Scott
unfortunately no.
Suzette,
I’d like to mail you a 1 oz bar (I have a few old silver “art” bars I like to give away to friends/relatives who haven’t any yet). If you’d like one just leave me your address. (I just sent one off to Australia over lunch, hope you aren’t that far away ;-)
Scott
Wow!
Well, not to offend you or anything but 1. if it sounds to good to be true it probably is :) and 2. I do not give away my personal info to just anyone;)
Thank you for the offer, but save it for someone else.:)
hey russell, go get a real job and stop being a parasite who writes books and blogs spreading your idiotism around.
hugo chavez a dictator, USA a PMM (psuedo-monarchy), fascism= “a centralized government that’s bad”, democracy= “mob rule” c’mon, get better definitions than that.
the constitution is dead and unenforcable, because it pretty much is voluntary. there is no way to force the government to obey it. The “3 branches of government” are only a “balance of power” within the government, however there is no “balance of power” between the government and the people, the church, the workers, business, courts… etc
The judiciary is NOT independent from government, it is appointed by the government for God’s sake. And it doesn’t matter what the judges say, they can be overruled by the supreme court, which is appointed by the president.
The police also obviously works for the government and must follow orders, and cannot arrest their superiors.
So you cannot arrest the politicians/government for breaking the law/constitution and you cannot sue them. Only the government can enforce the law/constitution, therefore the constitution is voluntary. The politicians, judges, and police have immunity as well.
The “This is a republic, NOT a democracy” people are the worst form of sheeple.
from Greek/Latin:
democracy=people rule
republic =people rule
yeah, that sounds like an opposite to me.
“a democracy is when 51% of people impose their will on 49% of the people” yeah, that’s true, BUT;
“a republic is an oligarchy where 1% of the people impose their will on the other 99%” which is even worse.
In case you wanna know what the real definition of republic is, it is simply “not a monarchy”
a monarchy is an individualistic system where 1 person rules
a republic is a collectivist system where many people rule collectively. how many people, and how they rule defines the type of a republic it is. therefore oligarchy, theocracy, democracy are all forms of republics, but a republic is not in itself a form of government.
your stupid, idealistic definition of republic is “a system where 100% of the people have constitutional rights, and where the government has limits placed on its power, so it cannot abuse its people”
Geez,, I wonder who decides what those “rights” ought to be, and what “limits” should be placed on government. Ohh yeah, why it’s the elected government itself., and the constitution, which it wrote and ammended. And who is “the government”, why it is the “elected representatives”, and who are these “representatives” and what do they represent? they are professional politicians who represent themselves. And how do they win elections? by having the time, money, and media necessary to run for office. And who has all these things? the upper/ruling class, elites, oligarchy. wow, sounds like a fantastic system to me.
fuck off and wake up.
America IS a republic, and NOT a democracy, and THAT is the problem.
Limits WERE placed on the federal government by the constitution…
The Tenth Amendment states: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
In Federalist No. 41, James Madison asked rhetorically: “For what purpose could the enumeration of particular powers be inserted, if these and all others were meant to be included in the preceding general power? ”
Madison was replying to anti-Federalist writers who had warned that the “general welfare” clause opened the way to unlimited abuse. He haughtily accused those writers of “labour[ing] for objections” by “stooping to such a misconstruction” of the obvious sense of the passage, as defined and limited by those powers explicitly listed immediately after it.
Like so many things the Federalists said could never, ever happen, it happened. The “general welfare” clause is constantly abused in just the way the pessimists predicted.
The federal government exceeds its enumerated powers whenever it can assert that other powers would be in the “general welfare.”
The Federalist Papers are one of our soundest guides to what the Constitution actually means. And in No. 84, Alexander Hamilton indirectly confirmed Madison’s point.
Hamilton argued that a bill of rights, which many were clamoring for, would be not only “unnecessary,” but “dangerous.” Since the federal government was given only a few specific powers, there was no need to add prohibitions: it was implicitly prohibited by the listed powers.
If a proposed law — a relief act, for instance — wasn’t covered by any of these powers, it was ipso facto unconstitutional.
Adding a bill of rights, said Hamilton, would only confuse matters. It would imply, in many people’s minds, that the federal government was entitled to do anything it wasn’t positively forbidden to do, whereas THE PRINCIPLE OF THE CONSTITUTION IS THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS FORBIDDEN TO DO ANYTHING IT ISN’T POSITIVELY AUTHORIZED TO DO.
Hamilton too posed some rhetorical questions:
“For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do? Why, for instance, should it be said, that the liberty of the press shall not be restrained when no power is given by which restrictions may be imposed?”
Such a provision “would furnish, to men disposed to usurp, a plausible pretence for claiming that power” — that is, a power to regulate the press, short of actually shutting it down.
We now suffer from the sort of confusion Hamilton foresaw.
Suzette-
Well said; this is new info to me and an eye-opener. Thanks for commenting!
It has been changed into a plutocracy.
Dear Scott:
Before you continue this thread, please read Lyander Spooner’s book “No Treason.” He proves that the constitution never had any ability to bind two parties, either in law or contract.
I used to think that the Constitution was sacrosanct, just like you. I also used to get pissed when I heard people refer to our form of government as a democracy. But then I came to understand that the Constitution is unenforceable and that America really is a Parliamentary Pseudo Monarchy.
Read my article at: http://ezinearticles.com/?Is-America-a-Democracy?&id=1761083
no free money theres no free guns its fraudulent to expose that thair is not thrift
I totally agree with you. I bothers me to no end when I’m talking politics with people and they start saying we’re a democracy. They just don’t get it.
Great post.