Left wing news has been accusing Republicans of threatening American democracy. By drumming these falsehoods into the heads of the American people, liberals convince themselves, and hope to convince others, that it is true. What must Americans do to protect our republic?
Republics and Democracies
James Madison said,
“It [the difference] is that in a democracy, the people meet and exercise the government in person: in a republic, they assemble and administer it by their representatives and agents. A democracy, consequently, must be confined to a small spot. A republic may be extended over a large region.”
America is a republic, which means that citizens vote for other citizens to represent them in governing bodies. Republics have an elected chief executive and a constitution. All these factors allow for majority rule while protecting the rights of minorities. Republics are sometimes called “representative democracies.”
A democracy is a government in which some large group of citizens is allowed to vote on issues facing the group. In early America, landholding adult white men were the voting body. Adult nonwhites and women were added in subsequent centuries. In a pure democracy, almost everyone in a society, but not everyone, can vote. Children under 18, illegal immigrants, and felons, for example, may not vote in many areas in the United States.
Democracies are “pure” when every enfranchised person votes on all the issues facing the group. The majority decision rules. People are not represented by someone else; they vote themselves. Minorities have no protection. Human rights may be violated by the will of the majority.
The Limitations of Laws
No number of laws can make an immoral person moral. No number of laws are needed to make a moral person moral. If people choose evil, an ocean of ink on a forest of paper cannot change that choice. Every society has miscreants, but the vast majority of members of any society must abide by the law for the society to survive. While allowing for legal change, if the citizens do not defer to the core documents and institutions of a government, the government will fall.
The Trouble
America is moving toward that direction. Democrats have long assailed the fundamental pillars of American government, and Republicans simultaneously defended those pillars. It is not that anyone believed the US Constitution to be flawless, but that it was the best available, and had provisions to make it better. No government in the world has a better balance of powers than our own.
Governments are not the only organizations that advance a society. Churches, other houses of worship, civic clubs, businesses, communities, and families are important to promoting day to day morality and prosperity. The only people trying to place all power in the Federal Government are those who want all power for themselves.
The Solution
Republicans must resume protecting the documents and institutions on which our republic is based. We must recommit ourselves to the timeless truths and practices that have formed the basis of every successful society in human history.
- Live a moral life. Personal morality is the only basis for group morality and a stable, prosperous, and just society.
- Read the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and other key US documents.
- Get and stay married, have and raise children, work hard at work worth doing, and care for those around you.
- Support your church and your community.
- Get educated on issues and people in your local, regional, state, and federal governments. Do the same for stakeholders like businesses, civic clubs, and other organizations.
- Support election integrity as a poll worker, reporting suspected voting irregularities, volunteering in some other capacity, and advancing laws and rules that ensure that every eligible American can vote.
- Vote, and encourage others to do so.
- Promote conservative values and core American institutions in your home, your work, your community, and in every place that life takes you.
The vicissitudes of life guarantee that not everyone can do everything on this list. However, everyone can do many things listed above.
Conclusion
Government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” is not ready to perish from the earth. Nonetheless, powerful voices on the left clamor to turn our nation into a left-wing, communist dictatorship. A few on the right seem to prefer authoritarianism as well.
We must resist this at all costs. Life is not primarily about ourselves, but about those around us. The United States is always one generation away from tyranny. Our generation must not lose the marvelous republic that our fathers bequeathed to us. We cannot forfeit, due to pleasure, ignorance, or cowardice, our representative democracy. We must not pass on darkness, destruction, and servitude to those who follow.
