DEFINITION OF DEMOCRACY

"... 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." James Madison

Is The United States Of America A Democracy?

Regardless of what you may have been taught, the United States of America is not a democracy. Elements of a democracy certainly may be allowed to play a part in our government, but our government is directed by a writen constitution and ruled by the laws of liberty, not ruled by the vote of the majority of the people. Our government was established to maintain liberties for all under God. The elements of worldly government (Socialism, Democracy, Totalitarianism, Anarchy, and Criminal rule etc.) are constantly being held in check and fought back from taking over by the institutions set up by the constitution. The constitution would have died years ago if this country were a democracy.

International ruling élites would like you to believe that your country is a democracy so you will abandon the ideals of the constitution and join the world community. See Secular Humanism's Democratic Society

The teachings that the United States of America is a democracy can be traced back to around the beginning of the first world war. International ruling élites were finally able to get high ranking government officials to begin teaching the doctrine of democracy to lure us into participation and eventually governance by international organizations. Had we been wise we would have realized this and held out for the world to adopt our divinely inspired constitutional principles of liberty, rather than us adopt their worldly, secular organizations.

Liberty vs Democracy

The United States of America was founded upon the principles of: 1. Liberty (the unalienable right of everyone to do, be, and have whatever they desire so long as it does not infringe upon the unailenable rights of others) 2. A Written Constitution wherein we organize and support a limited government (Republic) based upon the combined right to preserve and maintain our unalienable rights (Liberty). A government limited only to the defence of these unalienable rights through the enactment and enforcement of laws, judged to be in the best interest and defence of our individual unalienable rights.

Our form of government was not established as a democracy. In fact, seldom if ever will one see reference to democracy in the founding documents of our nation, at least in a positive context. Peculiar, don't you think if we are suppose to live in a democracy as many have been teaching? Consider that in the past, we had Liberty coins, not democracy coins. We have the Statue of Liberty, not the Statue of Democracy. We pledge allegiance to the flag, and to the Republic for which it stands, not the democracy for which it stands. Patrick Henry said: "Give me Liberty or give me death!", not "Give me democracy or give me death".

So you may ask, if we live in a Republic founded upon the principles of Liberty and limited government, why do many of our politicians and teachers keep trying to shove this concept of democracy down our throats, as if freedom naturally followed? That is a very good question! Perhaps politicians don't like the limits on the powers that have been granted them by our state and federal constitutions. Maybe because majority rule sounds legitimate and moral on its face. Perhaps they don't understand that international ruling élites wish to use our own ignorance to enslave us with the consent of the masses. Or maybe they have other self-serving motivations. Whatever the case may be, only knowledge of our heritage will enable us to anticipate such schemes and act accordingly to right the direction of our Republic.

Please take the time and consider the following by A. Ralph Epperson:

"It is generally conceded that even a monarchy or a dictatorship is an oligarchy, or a government run by a small, ruling minority.  Such is also the case with a democracy, for this form of government is traditionally controlled at the top by a small ruling oligarchy. The people in a democracy are conditioned to believe that they are indeed the decision-making power of government, but in truth there is almost always a small circle at the top making the decisions for the entirety."

So if democracies are in truth oligarchies, where the minority rules, is there a form of government that protects both minority and majority rights? There is, and it is called a republic. In the republican form of government, the power rests in a written constitution wherein the powers of the government are limited so that the people retain the maximum amount of power to control their own lives. In addition to limiting the power of government, care was also taken to limit access to the constitution to keep it unaltered from the influences of a demagogue and the will of the masses, protecting the rights of both the majority and the minority.

Perhaps the simplest method of illustrating the difference between an oligarchy, a democracy and a republic would be to discuss the basic plot of the classic grade B western movie.

In this plot, one that the moviegoer has probably seen a hundred times, the brutal villain rides into town and guns down the unobtrusive town merchant by provoking him into a gunfight. The sheriff hears the gunshot and enters the scene. He asks the assembled crowd what happened, and they relate the story. The sheriff then takes the villain into custody and removes him to the city jail.

Back at the scene of the shooting, usually in a tavern, an individual stands up on a table (this individual by definition is a Demagogue) and exhorts the crowd to take the law into its own hands and lynch the villain. The group decides that this is the course of action that they should take (notice that the group now becomes a democracy where the majority rules) and down the street they (now called a mob) go. They reach the jail and demand that the villain be released to their custody. The mob has spoken by majority vote: the villain must hang.

The sheriff appears before the democracy and explains that the villain has the right to a trial by jury. The demagogue counters by explaining that the majority has spoken: the villain must hang. The sheriff explains that his function is to protect the rights of the individual, be he innocent or guilty, until that individual has the opportunity to defend himself in a court of law. The sheriff continues by explaining that the will of the majority cannot deny the individual that right. The demagogue continues to exhort the democracy to lynch the villain, but if the sheriff is persuasive and convinces the democracy that he exists to protect their rights as well, the scene should end as the people leave, convinced of the merits of the arguments of the sheriff.

The republican form of government has triumphed over the democratic form of mob action.

In summary, the sheriff represents the republic, the demagogue the control of the democracy, and the mob the democracy. The republic (sheriff) recognizes that man has certain unalienable rights and that government is created to protect those rights, even from acts of the majority. Notice that the republic must be persuasive in front of democracy and that the republic will only continue to exist as long as the people recognize the importance and validity of the concept. Should the people wish to overthrow the republic (sheriff), they certainly have the power (but not the right) to do so. But the persuasive nature of the republic's arguments should convince the mob that it is the preferable form of government.

It is easy to see how a democracy can turn into anarchy [or, more likely, tyranny] when unscrupulous individuals wish to manipulate it. The popular beliefs of the majority can be turned into a position of committing some injustice against an individual or group of individuals. This then becomes the excuse for the unscrupulous to grab total power, all in an effort to "remedy the situation."

Alexander Hamilton [first Secretary of the Treasury] was aware of this tendency of a democratic form of government to be torn apart by itself, and he has been quoted as writing:

"We are now forming a republican form of government. Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments. If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon turn into a monarchy (or some other form of dictatorship)."

Others were led to comment on the perils of democratic forms of government. One was James Madison [fourth U.S. President] who wrote:

"In all cases where a majority are united by a common interest or passion, the rights of the minority are in danger!"

Another was John Adams [second U.S. President] who wrote:

"Unbridled passions produce the same effects, whether in a king, nobility, or a mob. The experience of all mankind has proved the prevalence of a disposition to use power wantonly. It is therefore as necessary to defend an individual against the majority (in a democracy) as against the king in a monarchy."

George Washington, in his farewell address to the American people as he was leaving the presidency, spoke about the amending of the Constitution:

"If in the opinion of the people, the distribution or modification of the Constitutional power be in any particular [manner] wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way in which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation, for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed."

It was about the same time that a British professor named Alexander Fraser Tyler wrote:

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse (defined as a liberal gift) out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a dictatorship."

One of the greatest threats to our republic and the laws of liberty are demagogues, including special interest groups and political organizations that wish to win public support through democracy and its institutions. Get popular opinion behind you and you can do anything, including circumvent and over throw a republican form of government. Will our republican form of government die because of people deciding to be ruled by the principles of democracy? Only if "we the people" allow it.

"Democracy, n.: A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of direct expression. Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic... negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether it is based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences. Result is demagogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy."  U. S. Army Training Manual No. 2000-25 (1928-1932), since withdrawn.

Democracy in its extreme is actually a form of socialism. An individual finds that his rights are not necessarily in the interests of the majority groups and are often overlooked for their "higher" interests. Democratic organizations become most abusive as their leaders in their efforts to gain and maintain political power resort to crowd pleasing by offering huge social programs (programs to rob from the productive and give to the unproductive). Plunder, licence, and regulation become "moral" and legal through democracy. An individual finds nearly every aspect of his life controlled by some legalized code or regulation. Democracy becomes a contest to see how evenly the plunderous social programs can be distributed. Finally democracy turns into a bureaucracy for providing social programs, and for regulating most of society. Basically democracy becomes socialism or even moves towards the extremes of communism (socialism maintained by force).

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