The United States is not a democracy, but a republic -- and we must return to our roots.
Imagine for a moment we lived in a place and time where you could pull a magical lever, and almost any perceived problems would slowly begin to fade away.
Now, the beauty of this lever is that the less you work, the more leverage the lever has to take problems off your shoulders (instead burdening others in far-off lands). Without any immediate negative effects, your lever-pulling could provide food, shelter, healthcare and even education.
And the single requirement to take such life-altering action? Merely reaching an age when you are responsible enough to handle the lever's power.
What would be the result if we had the above here and now? Would we create a utopia?
The short answer is no. We know this because the "magic" of which I speak has already been created -- and it's destroying our nation.
It's called the ballot box, and it's the only place where anyone 18 or older can flip a switch and tax someone else for something he may or may not need, as long as the majority is convinced it's for the common good.
"That's just the way our country works," I'm too often told.
The fact of the matter, however, is that the United States did not begin that way. The historical reality is that our country was established to
protect the individual from the far-reaching, powerful hand of the government (and the majority that enables that power).
And if we don't return to some semblance of our founding roots, our country is doomed.
Our course as a nation must be changed. We need a fundamental shift between the ears with a vast majority of our population. It also requires each of us to teach our children, and our neighbors, the truth about how our country was originally designed, and not the propaganda found in our schools or in the media.
If we are to win this battle, in which the very future of our nation is at stake, we must begin with us driving our government back to the founders' original, restricted plan.
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The United States Is NOT a Democracy
A good first step is to rediscover exactly what we are and, perhaps more importantly, what we are not!
The United States is a republic, not a democracy. The distinction is of critical importance, especially since every time the U.S. makes an excursion abroad, sooner or later, "safe for democracy" is heralded throughout the press as
the cause for which we should place our sons and daughters in mortal danger.
The chief characteristic of a democracy is that the majority rules completely. There is no specific protection of the individual man (or any minority) against the omnipotent rule of the majority.
On the other hand, the main purpose of a republic --
our republic! -- is to protect the minorities, and the individual's unalienable rights, from the tyranny of the majority. This is accomplished through the use of a written constitution,
specifically limiting the power of the majority.
Our founding fathers knew this all too well, which is why Thomas Jefferson wrote:
A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%.
What's more, John Quincy Adams anticipated what we are experiencing in the
Middle East (and everywhere else the United States has decided to install a democracy) when he said:
The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived.
As uncomplicated as this is, I've yet to hear of any media outlet emphasizing it. Nor have I heard the Tea Party give it anything other than a cursory once-over. Yet the protection of the minority, most importantly the individual, along with his private property, is the basis on which our system of government is built.
Unfortunately, a state run for the majority relies on war -- and the fully unleashed power of an out-of-control central government. We're currently occupying Iraq and Afghanistan, calling ourselves "liberating forces." We now are considering invading Libya, or, at the very least, creating a "no-fly zone." (To the Obama administration's credit, they have resisted every call to enter Libya. However, it's unlikely the U.S. can withstand the onslaught of the world's majority and stand by idle.)
War Is the Health of the State
And why, in this critical point in our history, would the U.S. consider another attack without provocation? Of course oil is part of the reason, but the core answer has more to do with the very nature of the democratic state itself. Randolph Bourne put it best when he said:
War is the health of the State. It automatically sets in motion throughout society those irresistible forces for uniformity, for passionate cooperation with the Government in coercing into obedience the minority groups and individuals which lack the larger herd sense. The machinery of government sets and enforces the drastic penalties; the minorities are either intimidated into silence, or brought slowly around by a subtle process of persuasion which may seem to them really to be converting them.
In other words, wars consolidate power in the hands of the government... and remove it from the individual and the minority. Exactly what the
U.S. Constitution was designed to prevent.
Atlas Returns
The events of our world today were very accurately predicted in the works of Ayn Rand and, specifically, in her book
Atlas Shrugged.
Tax day -- April 15, 2011 -- will mark the premiere of the motion picture
Atlas Shrugged Part I. For those of you who have not read this 50-year old masterpiece, I strongly recommend it. I hope the movie can do justice to her epic novel. Obviously with "Part I" in the title, the conclusion will be months, if not years in the future.
While I will not ruin the ending for you, the book concludes with a message of hope. However, like in Rand's novel, it will require courage, from us as individuals, to stand against the ruinous rule of the majority.
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