America is not a democracy \u2026 it is a republic.\u00a0 This is not an accident.\u00a0 The Founders of our country, those who wrote the Constitution, intended it to be that way.<\/p>\n
Most of us were poorly served when we were instructed in civics.\u00a0 Our teachers themselves had been taught by professors who were imbued with a century of Progressive propaganda aimed at distorting the meaning the Constitution and the clouding of the reasoning behind the tenants of that August document.\u00a0 We are constantly told that America is a \u201cdemocracy\u201d \u2026 that we should venerate the idea that democracy is absolute equality, that \u201cone man, one vote\u201d is the utopian goal.\u00a0 We are told by the purveyors of Progressive and Socialistic thought that elements of the Constitution are \u201canachronistic\u201d (out of step with time); we are told that the electoral college that elects the President is a confusing dinosaur of the past that has no present usefulness; we are told that the Constitution is a \u201cliving\u201d document; we are told that the \u201cinterstate commerce clause\u201d was intended to allow the Federal government to regulate all business in all the States no matter where or how it is conducted; that the \u201csupremacy clause\u201d means that any State law can be overturned merely by passing a contrary Federal law; that the \u201cgeneral welfare clause\u201d or \u201cnecessary and proper clause\u201d empowers the Federal government to spend any amount of the people\u2019s treasure to help the \u201cdisadvantaged.\u201d\u00a0 Are these and other intrusive actions in which the Federal government engages what the Founders of the Republic had in mind?<\/p>\n
Consider the men who wrote the Constitution.\u00a0 They were not exposed to the propaganda of massive newspapers and magazines.\u00a0 There was no radio or TV blaring their incessant commercial yammering.\u00a0 What they had, for this was the Age of Enlightenment, was the history of the travails of antiquity and the reality of their own times.\u00a0 They knew about the governments of men, not only in their present, but of the triumphs and failures of the past.\u00a0 There had never before been individual freedom anywhere on Earth and they were determined to save that freedom \u00a0for themselves and their posterity now that they had gained it.\u00a0 These men had all been subject to the will of an autocrat.\u00a0 Either they, their father or not too distant grandfather had fled from serfdom or deep tyranny, mostly from Europe, to this new place of hope.\u00a0 They were all traitors to their beginnings \u2026 they were all revolutionaries, but most importantly they were all individuals that respected the individuality of their peers.<\/p>\n
Their revolution had been overseen by a mostly anemic organization, the Continental Congress, but the war had been fought by volunteer militia from 13 separate Sovereign States.\u00a0 After the war, these sovereign states continued on their separate ways, but because of shared common interests, they attempted a common national front before the rest of the world under the Articles of Confederation.\u00a0 Under the Articles many of the problems among the states could be and were solved, take for instance the \u201cNorthwest Ordinances which allowed for the westward expansion of the country. \u00a0But there were many shortcomings among which were \u2026 the inability to finance the government; the inability to act in a timely fashion on issues of commerce and navigation; and the inability to provide for the common defense.\u00a0 After a failed meeting in Annapolis, Maryland in 1786, leaders, including Madison, Hamilton and Washington, decided to meet in Philadelphia in May of 1787 to address the problems and suggest solutions.\u00a0 Very soon after the meeting convened, the delegates mutually consented to attempt a radical overhaul.\u00a0 Thus began the epic meeting that lasted, overcoming many contentious debates, from May 14 to September 17, 1787.<\/p>\n
What were the issues?\u00a0 Of course the main consideration was to protect individual freedom.\u00a0 Secondarily, they had to devise a national government to promote harmony among the States and with foreign governments and to protect their common interests from outside influences and dangers.<\/p>\n
Because the members had a \u201cclassical education,\u201d they had become experts in comparative government, and because they knew what had happened in the past, they, to a man, distrusted mass democracy.\u00a0 They opted instead for a Republic of limited governmental powers.\u00a0 A national Republic of State Republics wherein the individual voter democratically elected from among those he knew or could know, his peers, those of known integrity to represent him at the state level and through those legislators or electors, the Senate of the national government.<\/p>\n
There hadn\u2019t been many democracies in the past, but those that had existed had all devolved into chaos, the most notable being the example held up to us by our teachers as being a beacon of freedom, Athens.\u00a0 Perhaps the Founders distrusted democracy because many of them had studied the Greek language and knew that the word, democracy, could be translated as \u201cmob rule.\u201d<\/p>\n
So if you believe in the individual and distrust the crowd, will democracy work anywhere and if so where?\u00a0 The answer is that democracy works and is fair where there is reasonable discourse.\u00a0 It works in small groups where all can participate, like the town hall meeting, the coffee klatch, the school board and the commissioner\u2019s meeting or small bodies like the Houses of the Legislature.\u00a0 It works in those places where people are willing to give and take and are willing to cede some of their individual interests to the majority will of their immediate community for their own security.\u00a0 But consider the fairness of a majority vote in a large stadium full of people where the issue is contrary to your own personal interests.\u00a0 Chances are that you will have no personal input in this scenario, or if you do, your voice and interests are lost in a sea of other people\u2019s voices and interests, generally in issues in which you may have no cause.\u00a0 Since you do not well know the motivations or needs of the others, isn\u2019t it likely that you will follow the lead of some \u201cexpert?\u201d\u00a0 In ancient Athens there were those experts, the demagogues.\u00a0 This word translates to \u201cmob teacher.\u201d\u00a0 Now, common sense will tell you that the demagogues will plead to the crowd in their own self interest in order to gain power or fame.\u00a0 Always have and always will.\u00a0 Common sense also suggests that the unscrupulous teacher might lie, stretch the truth, omit, slander, obfuscate or otherwise distort to gain his point.\u00a0 This was the experience in Athens.\u00a0 As the story goes, the assembly would require you to drink poison hemlock one day and then build a statue to you the next, all depending upon the message of the last speaker. \u00a0\u00a0And so it goes today \u2026 \u201cI will close Guantanamo my first day in office;\u201d \u201cif you make less than $250,000, I will not raise your taxes one dollar;\u201d \u201cyou can keep your present health care policy;\u201d \u201cunemployment will never go over 8%.\u201d\u00a0 And on and on.\u00a0 Our Constitutional Founders knew the scenario well and feared it \u2026 you can read about it in the Federalist papers and in the histories of the Convention.<\/p>\n
James Madison and his fellow Virginians opened the Convention by proposing a three branched Federal government where the executive, legislative and judiciary were all elected popularly.\u00a0 If you think about it, under this arrangement, it was only necessary for Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston to vote, because that is where the majority of the population resided.\u00a0 (By the same token, the entire western United States could be democratically represented today by the votes of San Diego, LA, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, and Denver)\u00a0 The suggestion was not well received by the Convention.\u00a0 Why would or maybe how could the \u201csmall states\u201d participate in such a scheme?\u00a0 Where was the protection for the interests of the States?\u00a0 An answer soon came from the small states, New Hampshire, Delaware, New Jersey and Connecticut.\u00a0 The President would be elected by the popular vote in each state, state by state; the Congress would have two houses, the Senate to represent the interests of the States and the House of Representatives would represent the interests of the people.\u00a0 The Senate would have two members from each state regardless of the size of the state; the House would have members in proportion to each state\u2019s proportion of the total population with the caveat that each state would have at least one member, so that no state was precluded from representation in that body.\u00a0 The Senate was to be elected by the state legislatures.\u00a0 Since Senators were, in essence, ambassadors from the state to the national government and since, in addition to their legislative duties, they were to supplement the executive by ratifying both treaties and the appointment of members of the judiciary, it was thought that they needed longer terms of office that would span several Congresses and the term of the President.\u00a0 This was done in order to enable them to be free of momentary exigencies in their deliberations.\u00a0 Since the legislatures that elected them, in most states, changed every two years, the terms of the Senators were staggered so that those in office more accurately reflected the views of the Legislature.<\/p>\n
It has often been said that the Constitution is a document of genius.\u00a0 The genius is in the division of powers.\u00a0 Each of the three arms of government has Constitutional controls of some nature over each of the others.\u00a0 This is also manifested in more subtle \u201cchecks and balances.\u201d\u00a0 The Congress is constrained by the necessity of legislation having to be passed by both bodies; the Senate by the fact that any appropriations must originate in the House; the executive and judiciary by the fact that the legislative must pay them; the President has his veto, but the Congress can override him. And if any or all of the branches of the Federal government should take on powers not delegated to them, after the adoption of the 10th Amendment, the States can reject their actions. Any study of the Constitution informs us of the aforementioned, but we must look more deeply to discover why our system has been so successful.<\/p>\n
Looking deeper into the problem, we were never informed as to the political benefits of this system.\u00a0 How did it enfranchise the individual?\u00a0 It is without question that the persons selected by this process to the United States Senate would always be among the most ardent advocates for their particular state.\u00a0 That is because they would be selected for that high office by the most honored members of the state\u2019s local communities, the legislators.\u00a0 The individual legislators, in turn, had been democratically elected from communities where they were not only known, but were leaders.\u00a0 The individual voter knew or could easily know the local legislator, because the legislator was, like himself, a visible participant in local affairs.\u00a0 The avenue for the individual to make his vote count for something was to be an active participant in local political and civic institutions.\u00a0 By doing this, the individual could know and communicate with his local representative \u2026 the local representative would then know the individual and could use that person\u2019s expertise and experience as a resource. Symbiosis!\u00a0 If candidates for the United States Senate were to campaign locally, it is probable that the interested local individual would come to know their stances on issues, but not likely that he would ever know the candidate\u2019s true character \u2026 but his friend, the legislator would.\u00a0 Through this truly republican mechanism, now gone up in the smoke of the 17th<\/sup> Amendment, the individual had a direct personal link from himself to the floor of the United States Senate.\u00a0 As the system stands now with \u201cone man, one vote\u201d the individual\u2019s vote disappears into a black morass of yeas or nays with no one responsible for the veracity of his efforts.\u00a0 The 17th<\/sup> Amendment coupled with court mandated re-apportionment has destroyed the once vibrant institution of local and state politics.<\/p>\n It has been claimed that the 17th<\/sup> Amendment was instituted, among other reasons, because sometimes the state legislature was unable to come to an agreement as to who should serve.\u00a0 As a result some seats were vacant for a considerable period of time.\u00a0 This indeed did happen.\u00a0 The fact is that if the legislature of the state could not agree, it may well have been better to not send an ambassador to the Senate at all.\u00a0 Of course, the legislature apprehending this problem could have easily provided a method by which that fault could have been cured if they had wanted.\u00a0 But it was not a disaster \u2026 why send someone with whom you do not agree?\u00a0 And as always happens when dealing with the Federal government, the beast was its self the cause of the problem; in 1866 the Congress had passed a law that forbade the seating of a Senator who had not received a majority vote of the Legislature. \u00a0Leaving this law un-enacted would have guaranteed that a plurality could have elected Senators and the issue of vacancy would have never arisen.\u00a0 \u00a0Interestingly, another manifestation of this check to the system follows thusly: if the political content of the legislature changed between the elections of the Senators so, presumably, would the philosophy of the new Senator.\u00a0 In this case, the votes between the two would have cancelled \u2026 giving the same political result that would accrue if the state had no Senator at all.<\/p>\n It also has been scurrilously alleged that the 17th<\/sup> Amendment was adopted to end the practice of the bosses, the rich and the influence peddlers who were allegedly bribing state legislators for their votes in Senatorial elections.\u00a0 This allegation is an unconscionable attack on the integrity of not only state legislators, but upon the Legislatures themselves.\u00a0 At the time of the debates on adoption of the 17th Amendment, US Senator Weldon Heyburn, from the State of Idaho, commented, \u201cI should like to see some Senator rise in his seat and say that the legislature of his state which elected him was not competent, was not fit, was not honest enough to be trusted.\u00a0 Then I should be interested to see him go back and say ‘I am a candidate for re-election.’ ”<\/p>\n It is a matter of provable record that bribery or corruption was alleged in only 15 senatorial contests from 1789 until 1913 with only 7 Senators being denied their seats.\u00a0 In that time 1180 men were elected Senator.<\/p>\n So what do we have now?\u00a0 The United States Congress has two popularly elected bodies.\u00a0 In the name of democracy there is no longer a check on \u201cpopular sovereignty;\u201d the Senate no longer represents the interests of the State; the Legislature no longer has any viable ambassador to check the actions of the Federal government; the popular actions of the House are no longer balanced by a Senate composed of members with a different agenda; \u2026 Congress is essentially a unicameral body.<\/p>\n And is the process better?\u00a0 What could be more corrupt than the lobbyists that the Senator meets each day, in his comings and goings from the chambers of the Senate, being his biggest campaign contributors?\u00a0 Today, the least expensive Senatorial campaign is a multi-million dollar affair.\u00a0 Carpet bagging is rampant \u2026 how does an Arkansas lawyer become a Senator from New York State? \u2026 Or for that matter a rich politician from the home of the \u201cRed Socks\u201d serve New York?\u00a0 In States where the elections are less expensive, the exceedingly wealthy suddenly appear to rescue the \u201cuninformed.\u201d\u00a0 And if the candidate is not articulate enough to be a demagogue, the media, the newspapers, radio, TV and now the internet do it for him.\u00a0 Elections that should take only a small part of one legislative day and cost very little are now contested for a year or more and cost millions of dollars of in-state and more ominously out-of-state money.\u00a0 Ask yourself which system lends itself to more corruption?<\/p>\n The democratic republic envisioned by our Founding Fathers has been attacked and severely wounded.\u00a0 The political process in this nation is disintegrating into the \u201cmob rule\u201d so feared by our forefathers.\u00a0 The Founders created \u201ca more perfect union\u201d of very limited, albeit important, powers to protect the essence of the American Revolution \u2026 the States and their People.\u00a0 Let us repeal the 17th<\/sup> Amendment as the first and most important step in restoring our Republic.\u00a0 This can be done by forming a truly representative Legislature, one where every political subdivision, the Counties, has a voice.\u00a0 The answer is to have a state legislature where each County has a Senator and at least one Representative\u00a0 … where the diversity of problems of the land and the People is represented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" America is not a democracy \u2026 it is a republic.\u00a0 This is not an accident.\u00a0 The Founders of our country, those who wrote the Constitution, intended it to be that way. Most of us were poorly served when we were … Continue reading