toobfreak
Tungsten/Glass Member
- Apr 29, 2017
- 74,407
- 69,172
There seems to be a lot of confusion by many people about how government works, what is government, and what system we are under, so if you are willing to take the time to muddle through all of this, I thought I would sort it out and make it simpler to understand.
The common view that Radical Liberals are on the left, Extreme Conservatives on the right and Moderates in the middle is not really an accurate one; it implies that moderation is in the middle. A better way to understand politics is in the degree of government. To the far left we have 100% government and to the far right there is no government at all.
Total government is where despotism such as communism, socialism, nazism and fascism lie. So it is not accurate to say that communism lies to the left and fascism to the right---- both are forms of total government control. Typically this is represented by a Monarchy, but a monarchy always has at its head one visible figure with a group of others around and under him, so is not a true form of government and does not really exist and quickly settles into an oligarchy.
At the other end of the spectrum is zero government, anarchy. There is no law, no government, it is usually started by a group seeking change. There is no freedom, everyone must be armed and stay put to protect their own property. Since the chaos was started by those seeking change, they soon put themselves in power as a ruling elite becoming an oligarchy, so anarchy is only a transitional phase.
Of course, an oligarchy where the people are ruled by a powerful few is the most common form of governance in the world. All is done for the benefit of an elite at the expense of a suffering people. That leaves us a Democracy and a Republic.
Democracy comes from the words Demos and Kratein, meaning People To Rule, or, the Rule of the People / majority rule. Sounds fair, right? A lot of people think we are a democracy and you constantly hear of the "democratic process," but we never have been one. Suppose the majority decides to take away your home, business or children? In a democracy, there is no limit so long as the majority approve of it. The flaw in a democracy is that the majority is not restrained. If more than half the people can be persuaded to want something, they rule. If they decide they want to hang you, you have no rights. You are hanged. Because of this, democracies inevitably break down into chaos and are replaced by an oligarchy, so is not a stable form of government either.
That leaves a Republic, the word coming from the Latin: Res and Publica, meaning the Thing Public, the Public Thing, or The Law. In a Republic, the government is limited by the law leaving the people alone. In a republic, all have representation under the law. A republic protects the rights of the people via constitutional moderates, and so represents the best balance of power where the proper amount of limited government makes everyone freer. If you are accused of a crime, at no point are you subject to majority rule, and the rights of the government are not subject to majority rule but the rule of law.
The word democracy appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution, nor does it appear in the constitutions of any of the 50 states. The Founders knew that a Democracy was incompatible with personal security and the rights of property. Real liberty is never found in despotism or the extremes of democracy.
So that really leaves only two forms of stable government, an Oligarchy where a small group makes the rules to serve themselves and the people have no rights other than to be dictated by the state, and a Republic, where the people are governed by a limited government limited by laws giving them the maximum amount of freedom while maintaining a civil society. Over the years, the meaning of these have been perverted to democracy meaning fairness when it is not fair at all, and if 51% of the people want something, the other 49% have no rights or say at all.
If you want to apply all of this to today's word, you have young anarchists running amok in our universities rioting and burning, spurred on by their administrators and some in government, you have the "Democratic" party always claiming to be "for the people" (the little guy) while being mostly run by the super-rich, and all of their actions are for the goal of a big government ruling elite (Oligarchy).
Then you have the Conservatives. I did not say the Republicans because the GOP is split, many who are constitutional moderates working to maintain the rule of law and others who are not sure what they think. But at least many of them think for themselves. And in general, overall, conservatives and much of the GOP in general tend to work more for maintaining limits on government so that the people can remain free.
The common view that Radical Liberals are on the left, Extreme Conservatives on the right and Moderates in the middle is not really an accurate one; it implies that moderation is in the middle. A better way to understand politics is in the degree of government. To the far left we have 100% government and to the far right there is no government at all.
Total government is where despotism such as communism, socialism, nazism and fascism lie. So it is not accurate to say that communism lies to the left and fascism to the right---- both are forms of total government control. Typically this is represented by a Monarchy, but a monarchy always has at its head one visible figure with a group of others around and under him, so is not a true form of government and does not really exist and quickly settles into an oligarchy.
At the other end of the spectrum is zero government, anarchy. There is no law, no government, it is usually started by a group seeking change. There is no freedom, everyone must be armed and stay put to protect their own property. Since the chaos was started by those seeking change, they soon put themselves in power as a ruling elite becoming an oligarchy, so anarchy is only a transitional phase.
Of course, an oligarchy where the people are ruled by a powerful few is the most common form of governance in the world. All is done for the benefit of an elite at the expense of a suffering people. That leaves us a Democracy and a Republic.
Democracy comes from the words Demos and Kratein, meaning People To Rule, or, the Rule of the People / majority rule. Sounds fair, right? A lot of people think we are a democracy and you constantly hear of the "democratic process," but we never have been one. Suppose the majority decides to take away your home, business or children? In a democracy, there is no limit so long as the majority approve of it. The flaw in a democracy is that the majority is not restrained. If more than half the people can be persuaded to want something, they rule. If they decide they want to hang you, you have no rights. You are hanged. Because of this, democracies inevitably break down into chaos and are replaced by an oligarchy, so is not a stable form of government either.
That leaves a Republic, the word coming from the Latin: Res and Publica, meaning the Thing Public, the Public Thing, or The Law. In a Republic, the government is limited by the law leaving the people alone. In a republic, all have representation under the law. A republic protects the rights of the people via constitutional moderates, and so represents the best balance of power where the proper amount of limited government makes everyone freer. If you are accused of a crime, at no point are you subject to majority rule, and the rights of the government are not subject to majority rule but the rule of law.
The word democracy appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution, nor does it appear in the constitutions of any of the 50 states. The Founders knew that a Democracy was incompatible with personal security and the rights of property. Real liberty is never found in despotism or the extremes of democracy.
So that really leaves only two forms of stable government, an Oligarchy where a small group makes the rules to serve themselves and the people have no rights other than to be dictated by the state, and a Republic, where the people are governed by a limited government limited by laws giving them the maximum amount of freedom while maintaining a civil society. Over the years, the meaning of these have been perverted to democracy meaning fairness when it is not fair at all, and if 51% of the people want something, the other 49% have no rights or say at all.
If you want to apply all of this to today's word, you have young anarchists running amok in our universities rioting and burning, spurred on by their administrators and some in government, you have the "Democratic" party always claiming to be "for the people" (the little guy) while being mostly run by the super-rich, and all of their actions are for the goal of a big government ruling elite (Oligarchy).
Then you have the Conservatives. I did not say the Republicans because the GOP is split, many who are constitutional moderates working to maintain the rule of law and others who are not sure what they think. But at least many of them think for themselves. And in general, overall, conservatives and much of the GOP in general tend to work more for maintaining limits on government so that the people can remain free.
