When Ben Franklin left Independence Hall on the final day of the Convention in 1787, he was asked by a woman, “Well Doctor, what have we got?” Franklin replied, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” Yet today, both political parties have turned our “Republican Form of Government” into a Democracy.
Americans “pledge allegiance to the flag, and to the Republic for which it stands.” Yet, Senator Elizabeth Warren stated, Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter would be “dangerous for our democracy.” If Musk closes the deal and buys Twitter, we may have less censorship of conservative ideas but, unfortunately, democracy is here to stay, at least until the American people understand the fraud perpetrated against them.
Democracy came from the ancient Greeks… if it worked, Greek would probably be the dominant language spoken throughout the world today. Aristotle described democracy as a perversion of constitutional government and tyranny by the many, ultimately leading to revolution.
Inspired by Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, an example of democracy may be represented by two wolves and one lamb deciding what to have for dinner; freedom, on the other hand, is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
The American founding fathers feared and even loathed democracy, described by James Madison in Federalist # 10, as “the violence of faction.” A faction represented an organized group of individuals interested in forcing their views on all other people. And, just to be clear, the word democracy is NOT written in our Constitution!
The Founders provided Americans with a “Republican Form of Government,” and Article IV, Section 4 guarantees “to every State in the Union” a limited government whose primary purpose was to protect the natural rights of individuals against the whims and aspirations of the majority: and, against enthusiastic “factions” or minorities with an agenda. Yet today, Americans are no longer living in a free country; they are subject to the changing rules of the power-elites that control government, with the promise of democracy substituted for natural rights.
Over the past 75-to-100 years, the Supreme Court has allowed our Constitutional Republic, with a limited government, to be converted to a Democracy, with an omnipotent government. As a result, some Americans have been granted positive rights. Special privileges have been carved out for women, blacks, sexual orientation, the disabled, the poor, unions, the wealthy, ad infinitum. Property and the “fruit of labor” of certain individuals or groups are taxed away and redistributed to those individuals or groups granted special privileges.
Under the original Constitutional Republic—which still exists today but has been either ignored or purposely misinterpreted—all individuals had the same unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness or property; negative rights or the right to pursue, without guarantees. The taking of property (e.g., wages or the “fruit of labor”), through taxation or legalized theft, from one group of individuals to give to other groups was clearly unconstitutional.
Under Article I, Section 8, Congress was granted the power to do seventeen (17) things. Congress was NOT granted the power to take taxpayer money and give it to the charity of their choosing or to “factions” or groups to buy votes. Today, however, that is what is happening. According to H.L. Mencken, “government [has become] a broker of pillage, and every election is a sort of advanced auction sale of stolen goods.”
Americans with the right schooling and indoctrination can become professional politicians or career government employees or consultants, legitimized by the new religion, democracy; and, because of their acquired political power, have an equal opportunity to participate in the plunder of their fellow citizens. As Dr. Will Durant concluded; democracy is now taking “its turn in the misgovernment of mankind.”
The experiment in individual freedom started by our Founders has been reversed. “Ignorance of . . . history, coupled with an inability to think critically,” according to the late Professor Dr. Walter E. Williams, has allowed the power-elites that control government “to undermine the legitimacy of [the] Constitution to gain greater control over [the] lives [of all Americans].” “The teaching establishment at . . . public schools and colleges, is being used to undermine American values.”
Therefore, we must first separate Education from State and get rid of government-controlled compulsory schooling. Otherwise, the experiment in individual freedom will be “defeated by the high birth rate of unwilling or indoctrinated ignorance.” Dr. Will Durant
Dum Spiro, Spero—While I breathe, I hope.
Slainte mhath,
Robert G. (Mike) Beard Jr., C.P.A., C.G.M.A., J.D., LL.M.
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