Why Are We A Democracy?

[occupied]

Full Definition of democracy
plural
democracies

1. 1a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majorityb : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

We're not supposed to be a Democracy. The U.S. was set up to be a Constitution Republic with limits on government power - one important purpose of which is to protect minority (not racial, but political) rights. Pure Democracies always descend into raging mobs which persecute the political minority (which is a moving target based on arbitrary abuses of power).

There has never been a "pure democracy" on a national scale ever.

Mob rule cannot be organized that's why… LOL

Are you aware that every fascist movement started with the idea that democracy is poison, the masses are unfit to have a say in their government and a certain class/race/tribe alone has the moral certitude to rule? Democracy is not a system of government but if a government does not promote the ideal that all of "The People" must be included in the political structure and have a vote and the right to protest it is not a free country. Simply dismissing democracy as mob rule tells me you would be just fine in a fascist state as long as you were included in the ruling class.

 

[USNavyVet]

We're a Constitutional Republic. Not a Democracy. Democracy is mob rule.

The correct answer is that most countries, free or not, were/are a constitutional republic so that is no guarantee of anything, the ideal of democracy is the crucial element for a country to be free. Too many people dismissing democracy as mere mob rule is the first step towards fascism.

You don't appear to understand the definition of Democracy. Read through the thread again.

 

[norwegen]

Full Definition of democracy
plural
democracies

1. 1a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majorityb : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

In the United States, supreme authority was never to be vested in the people. It's supposed to vested in law, most specifically the Constitution.

 

[Rustic]

Full Definition of democracy
plural
democracies

1. 1a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majorityb : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

We're not supposed to be a Democracy. The U.S. was set up to be a Constitution Republic with limits on government power - one important purpose of which is to protect minority (not racial, but political) rights. Pure Democracies always descend into raging mobs which persecute the political minority (which is a moving target based on arbitrary abuses of power).

There has never been a "pure democracy" on a national scale ever.

Mob rule cannot be organized that's why… LOL

Are you aware that every fascist movement started with the idea that democracy is poison, the masses are unfit to have a say in their government and a certain class/race/tribe alone has the moral certitude to rule? Democracy is not a system of government but if a government does not promote the ideal that all of "The People" must be included in the political structure and have a vote and the right to protest it is not a free country. Simply dismissing democracy as mob rule tells me you would be just fine in a fascist state as long as you were included in the ruling class.

You apparently live in a fairytale world, we're debts pay themselves in the printing of paper is wealth... lol

 

[occupied]

Full Definition of democracy
plural
democracies

1. 1a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majorityb : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

We're not supposed to be a Democracy. The U.S. was set up to be a Constitution Republic with limits on government power - one important purpose of which is to protect minority (not racial, but political) rights. Pure Democracies always descend into raging mobs which persecute the political minority (which is a moving target based on arbitrary abuses of power).

There has never been a "pure democracy" on a national scale ever.

And your point is?

The real issue is that we have Prog Elites manipulating their hordes of howling monkeys into thinking that "majority rule" means that they can shred The Constitution and turn political opponents into criminals.

In reality, nothing is perfectly pure. But that doesn't mean that it the concept is invalid.

The real issue is the right walking down the road to fascism because democracy has failed to provide them a leader who will beat the masses into shape.

 

[norwegen]

Full Definition of democracy
plural
democracies

1. 1a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majorityb : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

A pure democracy is mob rule

So is representative democracy. Whether people tyrannize themselves directly, as Americans have been doing with ballot measures, or indirectly with representatives who need not recognize natural or constitutional law, they have been exercising democracy. Democracy is arbitrary rule.

Republicanism, on the other hand, is fixed in the eternal. Res Publica - the public affair - is the law, antecedent to any magistracy or court.

 

[occupied]

We're a Constitutional Republic. Not a Democracy. Democracy is mob rule.

The correct answer is that most countries, free or not, were/are a constitutional republic so that is no guarantee of anything, the ideal of democracy is the crucial element for a country to be free. Too many people dismissing democracy as mere mob rule is the first step towards fascism.

You don't appear to understand the definition of Democracy. Read through the thread again.

Democracy is the people participating in the political process of their country either through voting, protests, petitions, etc. without fear of government reprisals. The extent that the government protects and promotes these activities is the true measure of freedom. It is the proto-fascists on the right who have it wrong. You mention democracy to some of them and they say "mob rule" and give it no more thought. It is also clear they have little respect for the ideal of democracy when it does not elect the people they want.

 

[IsaacNewton]

The derps that claim America isn't a democracy. These are people that try to sound smart but only make the adults around them uncomfortable with the ignorance they have to witness. Representative Democracy is a subset of Democracy. It is a form of democracy.

The derps though claim 'it's a sweater'.

 

[boedicca]

Full Definition of democracy
plural
democracies

1. 1a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majorityb : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

We're not supposed to be a Democracy. The U.S. was set up to be a Constitution Republic with limits on government power - one important purpose of which is to protect minority (not racial, but political) rights. Pure Democracies always descend into raging mobs which persecute the political minority (which is a moving target based on arbitrary abuses of power).

There has never been a "pure democracy" on a national scale ever.

And your point is?

The real issue is that we have Prog Elites manipulating their hordes of howling monkeys into thinking that "majority rule" means that they can shred The Constitution and turn political opponents into criminals.

In reality, nothing is perfectly pure. But that doesn't mean that it the concept is invalid.

The real issue is the right walking down the road to fascism because democracy has failed to provide them a leader who will beat the masses into shape.

Uh, Earth to Occupied: Progressives are leading us down the road to Fascism and Serfdom combined. If you think that the GOP is "the right", or conservative, you are sorely mistaken. It is just the Junior League auxiliary of the Dem-Prog Big Government Pogrom.

 

[hangover]

Why Are We A Democracy?
We are not a democracy....Bush Jr. didn't win the popular vote in 2000, the Supreme Court overruled the popular vote.

 

[USNavyVet]

We're a Constitutional Republic. Not a Democracy. Democracy is mob rule.

The correct answer is that most countries, free or not, were/are a constitutional republic so that is no guarantee of anything, the ideal of democracy is the crucial element for a country to be free. Too many people dismissing democracy as mere mob rule is the first step towards fascism.

You don't appear to understand the definition of Democracy. Read through the thread again.

Democracy is the people participating in the political process of their country either through voting, protests, petitions, etc. without fear of government reprisals. The extent that the government protects and promotes these activities is the true measure of freedom. It is the proto-fascists on the right who have it wrong. You mention democracy to some of them and they say "mob rule" and give it no more thought. It is also clear they have little respect for the ideal of democracy when it does not elect the people they want.

And yet you still think America is a democracy.

 

[occupied]

Full Definition of democracy
plural
democracies

1. 1a : government by the people; especially : rule of the majorityb : a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections

We're not supposed to be a Democracy. The U.S. was set up to be a Constitution Republic with limits on government power - one important purpose of which is to protect minority (not racial, but political) rights. Pure Democracies always descend into raging mobs which persecute the political minority (which is a moving target based on arbitrary abuses of power).

There has never been a "pure democracy" on a national scale ever.

And your point is?

The real issue is that we have Prog Elites manipulating their hordes of howling monkeys into thinking that "majority rule" means that they can shred The Constitution and turn political opponents into criminals.

In reality, nothing is perfectly pure. But that doesn't mean that it the concept is invalid.

The real issue is the right walking down the road to fascism because democracy has failed to provide them a leader who will beat the masses into shape.

Uh, Earth to Occupied: Progressives are leading us down the road to Fascism and Serfdom combined. If you think that the GOP is "the right", or conservative, you are sorely mistaken. It is just the Junior League auxiliary of the Dem-Prog Big Government Pogrom.

You have no idea what all those terms you so carelessly throw around actually mean. You have every right to your opinion but not your own definitions of terms that have been around for centuries. There is nothing resembling fascism on the left. Look around at all those people who are trying to make you lose faith in our elections and despise those who vote wrong, those are fascists.

 

[norwegen]

We're a Constitutional Republic. Not a Democracy. Democracy is mob rule.

The correct answer is that most countries, free or not, were/are a constitutional republic so that is no guarantee of anything, the ideal of democracy is the crucial element for a country to be free. Too many people dismissing democracy as mere mob rule is the first step towards fascism.

You don't appear to understand the definition of Democracy. Read through the thread again.

Democracy is the people participating in the political process of their country either through voting, protests, petitions, etc. without fear of government reprisals. The extent that the government protects and promotes these activities is the true measure of freedom. It is the proto-fascists on the right who have it wrong. You mention democracy to some of them and they say "mob rule" and give it no more thought. It is also clear they have little respect for the ideal of democracy when it does not elect the people they want.

And yet you still think America is a democracy.

It is, essentially. It's not the way America started, of course, but it is essentially what the progressives have made it.

Ballot measures, direct primaries, and recalls are democratic measures. Progressives have also broadened suffrage, even to the idea that voting is right, and the people also determine the composition of the electoral college.

Republicanism doesn't engender divisiveness, which has plagued our land since the Constitutional Convention, and especially since the Progressive Era.

 

[Windship]

Lol, from a bunch of globalists....and one moron

 

[norwegen]

Lol, from a bunch of globalists....and one moron

You're not the only one, trust me.

 

[occupied]

We're a Constitutional Republic. Not a Democracy. Democracy is mob rule.

The correct answer is that most countries, free or not, were/are a constitutional republic so that is no guarantee of anything, the ideal of democracy is the crucial element for a country to be free. Too many people dismissing democracy as mere mob rule is the first step towards fascism.

You don't appear to understand the definition of Democracy. Read through the thread again.

Democracy is the people participating in the political process of their country either through voting, protests, petitions, etc. without fear of government reprisals. The extent that the government protects and promotes these activities is the true measure of freedom. It is the proto-fascists on the right who have it wrong. You mention democracy to some of them and they say "mob rule" and give it no more thought. It is also clear they have little respect for the ideal of democracy when it does not elect the people they want.

And yet you still think America is a democracy.

America is a democracy. Maybe you should cut the shit and admit you wish it weren't. Admit it would just be so lovely to have a big boss that could shut people up and beat the masses into obedience.

 

[Avatar4321]

We dont have a Democracy. We have a Republic if we can keep it

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

“Why Are We A Democracy?”

We’re not, we are a Constitutional Republic.

In our Constitutional Republic the supreme power is vested in the rule of law, not ‘majority rule’ – and thankfully so.

In the United States democracy functions in the context of a republican form of government, where the will of the people is expressed through their elected representatives.

And when the people err, and enact measures repugnant to the Constitution, the courts invalidate such measures in accordance with the Constitution, its case law, and the rule of law.

 

[Windship]

(Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images)
I often hear people argue that the United States is a republic, not a democracy. But that’s a false dichotomy. A common definition of “republic” is, to quote the American Heritage Dictionary, “A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them” — we are that. A common definition of “democracy” is, “Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives” — we are that, too.

The United States is not a direct democracy, in the sense of a country in which laws (and other government decisions) are made predominantly by majority vote. Some lawmaking is done this way, on the state and local levels, but it’s only a tiny fraction of all lawmaking. But we are a representative democracy, which is a form of democracy.

And indeed the American form of government has been called a “democracy” by leading American statesmen and legal commentators from the Framing on. It’s true that some Framing-era commentators made arguments that distinguished “democracy” and “republic”; see, for instance, The Federalist (No. 10), though even that first draws the distinction between “pure democracy” and a “republic,” only later just saying “democracy.” But even in that era, “representative democracy” was understood as a form of democracy, alongside “pure democracy”: John Adams used the term “representative democracy” in 1794; so did Noah Webster in 1785; so did St. George Tucker in his 1803 edition of Blackstone; so did Thomas Jefferson in 1815. Tucker’s Blackstone likewise uses “democracy” to describe a representative democracy, even when the qualifier “representative” is omitted.

Likewise, James Wilson, one of the main drafters of the Constitution and one of the first Supreme Court Justices, defended the Constitution in 1787 by speaking of the three forms of government being the “monarchical, aristocratical, and democratical,” and said that in a democracy the sovereign power is “inherent in the people, and is either exercised by themselves or by their representatives.” And Chief Justice John Marshall — who helped lead the fight in the 1788 Virginia Convention for ratifying the U.S. Constitution — likewise defended the Constitution in that convention by describing it as implementing “democracy” (as opposed to “despotism”), and without the need to even add the qualifier “representative.”

To be sure, in addition to being a representative democracy, the United States is also a constitutional democracy, in which courts restrain in some measure the democratic will. And the United States is therefore also a constitutional republic. Indeed, the United States might be labeled a constitutional federal representative democracy. But where one word is used, with all the oversimplification that this necessary entails, “democracy” and “republic” both work. Indeed, since direct democracy — again, a government in which all or most laws are made by direct popular vote — would be impractical given the number and complexity of laws that pretty much any state or national government is expected to enact, it’s unsurprising that the qualifier “representative” would often be omitted. Practically speaking, representative democracy is the only democracy that’s around at any state or national level.

Now one can certainly argue that some aspects of U.S. government should become less direct, and filtered through more layers of representation. One can argue, for instance, that the 17th Amendment should be repealed, and that U.S. senators should no longer be elected directly by the people, but should return to being elected by state legislators who are elected by the people. Or one can argue for repealing state- and local-level initiative and referendum schemes. Or one can argue for making the Electoral College into a deliberative body, in which the electors are supposed to discuss the candidates and make various political deals, rather than being elected solely to vote for particular candidates. And of course one can equally argue for making some aspects of U.S. government more direct, for instance by shifting to truly direct election of the president, or by institute a federal-level initiative and referendum.

But there is no basis for saying that the United States is somehow “not a democracy, but a republic.” “Democracy” and “republic” aren’t just words that a speaker can arbitrarily define to mean something (e.g., defining democracy as “a form of government in which all laws are made directly by the people”). They are terms that have been given meaning by English speakers more broadly. And both today and in the Framing era, “democracy” has been generally understood to include representative democracy as well as direct democracy.

 

[norwegen]

We dont have a Democracy. We have a Republic if we can keep it

We didn't. It went left.