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AMERICAN REPUBLIC

Edwin Greiner • November 10, 2020

America is a Republic - NOT a Democracy.

American Citizens are guaranteed a republican form of government in Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution. James Madison stated “Democracy is the most vile form of government.” John Adams stated “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” Why did the founders choose to create a Republic?

The American Republic was formed from the sovereignty of Individual Citizens delegated as sovereign power. Primarily to the States and then secondarily and on a limited basis to form the national government. (The Constitution is a State document and a document of limitation. The Supremacy Clause is a misnomer. It is better termed the Limited Supremacy Clause as the power of the Supreme Court is also constitutionally limited). The Republic then owes an obligation to protect individual rights. That is why we have a Declaration of Independence and a Constitution-to protect individual rights under the Rule of Law. These are God given natural rights and as such are absolute. It has been a tough 244 years, since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but all minorities should be thankful we live in a Republic. In a Democracy we would still have slaves as evidenced by the Democratic Party’s policies of dependency and economic slavery.

Democracy, as a form of government protects group rights. It is Tyranny by the Majority-Mob Rule. All groups have their own special interests and they always conflict causing divisiveness, dissension and turmoil. This breeds moral relativism and speeds the decay of the Democracy.

The American Republic is defined as a Constitutional Federal Republic. Why? As above, the Constitution and the Declaration protect individual rights and provide for a Limited government. Limited government and liberty go hand in hand. Large government breeds tyranny. The only Limited government is a Republic. Large governments, antithetical to liberty, run the gamut from Democracy to autocracy, dictatorships, monarchy, fascism, socialism and communism. Democratic socialism is just a phrase for communism. All these governments seek the lowest common denominator in producing the least wealth and are completely unfair to their populations with the tyranny of the commons and the problems of the free rider, malingering, poaching and a severely depressed savings rate while seeking equality of outcome instead of Opportunity. Additionally, in the twentieth century, they are responsible for more than 200 million deaths through murder and war. (Liberty is sacrificial and usually requires a blood sacrifice.)

Government is unaccountable and wasteful. (The only possible accountability is the morality of our elected leaders). The larger the government the more unaccountable, inefficient and tyrannical. It is the nature of the beast because of bureaucracy. It is a political law like gravity. Central planning produces less wealth because it is inefficient and wasteful. Because of efficiencies derived from the profit motivation and human self-interest, free marketplaces and the citizens’ invisible hand are much more efficient in allocating and using resources and promoting freedom, being then wholly accountable.

The method for ensuring Limited government is to separate the powers of government but also to have another source of governmental power so they oppose each other. This is Federalism. This is the opposition of States’ Rights against the encroachment and usurpation of power by the national government. It is embodied in the tenth and the ninth Articles Amending the Constitution in the Bill of Rights. I have two analogies. The first, about large government, is The Blob, a 1950’s horror film starring Steve McQueen, where an amorphous alien crash lands on earth. It is a Blob that consumes everything in its path and grows to enormous proportions. It only cares about itself, like an administrative bureaucracy, and will do anything to survive. It has to be flown to the Artic to be permanently frozen-but it’s still there. The other analogy is about the proper relationship of governments in a federal republic. It is shoelace federalism. How do you tie shoelaces? You tie a half knot and then pull with equal strength on both shoelaces to form the knot. If you equate each shoelace with governmental power then you understand that for a federal republic to survive and thrive, power must be equally shared to form the knot that binds. (This is competition in government. Texas should form four autonomous regions, with each region having a port city on the Gulf of Mexico to benefit from competition in government.) Federalism also promotes the Constitutional tenet of subsidiarity (decentralization) holding that functions which are performed effectively by subordinate or local organizations (States) belong more properly to them than to a dominant central organization. Subsidiarity places an absolute brake upon centralizing powers by permitting their involvement only when requested.

America is the wealthiest nation and our people, even the poor, are much wealthier than their counterparts in other parts of the world. Why? The freedom of our Republic coupled with the freedom of the capitalist free marketplace produces tremendous wealth. It is freedom of Opportunity. We need to be constantly vigilant to protect this Opportunity. We are the Sovereign Citizens. It is our responsibility. All problems are our fault. Are there problems? Sure. But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. Our people are GREAT! We have saved the world from oppression more than once while sacrificing our blood and treasure. Ask my father who flew over the Pacific more than two million miles during WWII at the age of seventeen. Americans give more to the world in charity than most of the rest of the world. Ask the tsunami victims and Haiti to name two.

America, please instruct our elected leaders, academia, political pundits, editors, syndicated writers and guest contributors that America is a Republic-NOT a Democracy! Never say America is a Democracy!
Yours in Liberty!

Edwin Thomson Greiner is a constitutional law attorney with a doctorate from Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

He can be reached at GREINER@HereComesTheTruth.com


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