Do you love democracy? Think about it. Do you love the idea that whatever the people want becomes the law -- government of the people, by the people, for the people? It's a pretty great idea. It certainly seems better than most of the alternatives. But what if the majority decides that: starting tomorrow, all black people should be surgically neutered, or all fundamentalist Christians should be kept in prison, or all homosexuals should be summarily executed? Whoa! Wait a minute. That's democracy? Yep, that's pure democracy and that is what can happen when an omnipotent majority rules.
"Now hold on," you say, "that's not right."
Sorry, when the majority wants to do something in a pure democracy, nothing can stop it.
"Yeah, but that would never happen in America."
Right! That's because America is a special kind of democracy. We call our kind of democracy a republic.
"But isn't a republic just a form of democracy where the people elect representatives to create the laws?"
It used to mean that until the Founding Fathers of America came along and invented a whole new kind of republic never before seen on the face of the earth. These young men -- did I say young? Yep, on the day of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson was only 33, James Madison was only 25, John Adams was 40, and Alexander Hamilton was only 21 years old -- these young revolutionaries saw an opportunity to create a kind of government that would reflect the will of the people BUT at the same time protect the rights of the individual!
In order to accomplish that, they had to set in stone (parchment?), at the very top level of the structure, a list of rights declared to be unalienable for the individual, rights that were not arbitrarily assigned by the laws of men, but rather afforded to them by Natural Law and from Nature's God by virtue of their humanity. The majority could rule on everything else, take the nation or state in any direction, tax themselves, build armies, issue currency, whatever. But that majority could never violate the unalienable rights of the individual, shining at the top of the governmental structure. This is what makes the American style of republic the most humanitarian form of government ever fashioned.
The struggle for power underlies humanity's most basic instincts. When there is nothing to restrict them, the strong dominate the weak. And so, for the thronging multitudes of oppressed classes from time immemorial, democracy has seldom been more than a dream. Left to ourselves, in the daycare the strongest
child gets the cookies, the strongest gang member gets the hottest gang girls,
at least until someone puts a bullet in his head, the strongest tribe
gets the best hunting grounds and tillable land, and on it goes, all the
way up to the ruling of nations.
A
monarchy is just the biggest strongest family with the most friends,
who all agree that this family should be the ones in charge. Their
power is further consolidated by giving favors to a ruling class of
aristocrats all of whom enjoy the fruits of being at the top, at the
expense of those at the bottom. (hmmm, does that sound like anything
going on in our own society? Maybe we have some work to do on that
front).
Thus society sorts itself into a pyramidal hierarchy with the fortunate few at the top being supported by the masses at the bottom. But once the working class becomes too large, or too aware of their own dignity, or their lives are too egregiously enslaved by the overlords, they revolt. Then of course they themselves fall victim to their own appetites and the whole thing crumbles into chaos. A new savage struggle to fill the power void ensues; witness the recent Arab Spring, or the continuously failing democracies of South America.
But why is America different? After our revolt, we didn't decay in to the typical struggle for domination by the most powerful. For the last 200 plus years, our American republic has protected us from our worst enemy: our own human nature. It was because of an idea, a beautiful idea called Liberty, and because of the foresight of our brilliant founders. They realized that Liberty wasn't just freedom from oppression by the powerful, but also freedom from the whims of the majority. Those framers of our Constitution purposely separated the governmental powers and pitted them against each other in a careful balance, they gave individual rights the preeminence, and limited the government from over-reaching into the lives of the citizens.
America is in a predicament at the moment. We've got two front runners in our presidential election process, neither of whom deserve to be president. And we have large factions on both sides of the aisle, large factions who normally follow party lines, sworn never to vote for their own particular abominable nominee. It seems inevitable that we are going to end up with a president who has been elected by a minority of the population. Things look dire for our democracy.
But before you sell all your stuff and move to Australia, or start making plans to secede from the Union, think about this. We don't have to trust the actual people who get elected, we can trust in the form of our government to protect us. People come and go, some are good and some are bad, but the Constitution remains. What
a rare and precious governmental form this is. Do I pledge my
allegiance to this republic, a
republic with liberty and justice for all? Unreservedly.
There is one thing that fundamentally holds a republic like ours together. It is a golden thread which our form of government depends on for its very existence. A friend of mine shared this concept with me one day and for that kindness, I will be eternally grateful. I can only hope that you'll share it with everyone you know because if we lose this one simple principal, we lose everything. This wonder is called "The Faithful Opposition." It's the idea that after a particularly contentious campaign, either for a political candidate, or an issue of great importance, that those who are on the losing side, do not resort to violent insurrection. That is the recourse of impotent irrelevant small minded parties like those in the failing democracies around the world. Rather, those who lose, but are lucky enough to live in America, put their trust in this republic. They don't have to like the president, but they still agree that he or she is in fact the president. They know that times will change, and that as long as the Constitution with its Bill of Rights stands, they will have another chance to convince the majority that their idea is worth putting into law, or their candidate is worth putting into office.
No form of government is perfect, but there is nothing that even comes in a close second to the American style of republic. Let's not throw it away on a couple of loser presidential candidates this fall by giving in to our base fears in short sighted violence. Let's keep the golden thread of "The Faithful Opposition" intact. Let's put our trust in once again, and pledge our allegiance once again to this republic.
