Does the Republic Still Exist?

To set the tone for discussion here is a brief rundown of various forms of government:

Dictatorship: Total government control.

Dictatorships don’t really exist—there maybe one visible leader but it is always ruled by a group behind the scenes: nobles, commissars, or bureaucrats, etc.

Oligarchy- ruled by a group (a powerful few), the most common form of government throughout history. It is the most common form of government today. All totalitarian/ dictatorships are “oligarchies.”

Anarchy: (without government) ruled by no one.

But without law there can be no freedom. Anarchy is only a transitionary state (it is unstable). Out of chaos, governments always appear. Sooner or later a civilized people need order, a sheriff, a government to protect property so folks can leave their farms or property to seek employment or work their fields. With the proper amount of government everyone is freer.

Democracy: Rule of the people or Majority Rule.

This sounds good in theory but what if the majority wants to take your property (money, home, business, or even your children)? Democracys never last because sooner or later the majority figures out that they can vote themselves the property of others. This is what happened to the ancient Greeks. Many Americans maybe surprised to learn that nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or the U. S. Constitution is the term “democracy” mentioned.

Republic: The Law or Ruled by Law.

In a Republic, government is limited, leaving the people alone. The law in America is the Constitution which explicitly restricts the powers of government and protects the individual from the majority.

The essence of a republic is the fact that the rights of the government are not subject to the majority rule but by the law—Constitution.

The Bill of Rights is a document that specifically protects individual liberties—it doesn’t grant rights, it protects them. The Bill of Rights protects the rights of individuals NOT a select group of people or the collective. A Republic is ruled by law not by majority opinion.

Here are some quotes to give you some food for thought:

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. -Benjamin Franklin

When the people find that they can vote themselves money that will herald the end of the republic. -Benjamin Franklin

After the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia Benjamin Franklin was asked, what kind of government did you give us? Benjamin Franklin replied, “A Republic mam if you can keep it.”

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can exist only until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship. - Alexander Tytler

Today we have ample evidence that popular majority opinion is threatening our Republican way of life; for example: The rights of the poor have been put ahead of the rights of the rich. The rights of environmentalism are being put ahead of the property rights of individuals.

Some even complain our Founders could have never imagined what today’s society would evolve into; with cars traveling at high speeds along super highways; that Americans would seek to terrorize other citizens with bio-warfare using the postal service as a means of delivery, or that insurance would become standard in our society.

Because of these complexities many complain the Constitution is too restrictive. It needs to be reinterpreted, that our Constitution is not “written in stone,” but rather a living, breathing, stretchable, kneadable, document to be molded to fit the needs of today’s society. If this is true, we no longer have any clear rules that govern the behavior or jurisdiction of government.

I ask you, do we have a republic today?

True Republican government has disappeared from our understanding, evidenced by the fact that today we no longer hear anyone speaking of our constitutionally guaranteed republican form of government; all we hear about is spreading democracy. No longer do we hear our leaders in government, or in our institutions of higher learning, speak of our constitutional protections from far-reaching democratic institutions.

The Republic has been, over time, incrementally replaced by democracy, liberty has been substituted with majority opinion, and the value of the individual is measured by what sacrifices he makes for the greater good of society.