Liberal Forum

maineman » 29 Jan 2023, 8:33 am » wrote: ↑

29 Jan 2023, 8:33 am

"Democracy" is a word. It is usually not capitalized when used in a sentence unless it is the first word in that sentence. It has a definition.  .That definition from Webster's is:

democracy: 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.  

Is the United States a democracy or a republic?  The United States is both a democracy and a republic. Democracies and republics are both forms of government in which supreme power resides in the citizens. The word republic refers specifically to a government in which those citizens elect representatives who govern according to the law. The word democracy can refer to this same kind of representational government, or it can refer instead to what is also called a direct democracy, in which the citizens themselves participate in the act of governing directly.

That definition accurately and precisely describes and defines our country.  If the citizens of the United States want fire departments, they will vote for fire departments. If they want snow removal, they will vote for snow removal. If they want the sorts of social safety nets that Social Security and Medicare - and Obamacare - provide, they will vote for elected representatives that enact those sorts of programs.  And none of those programs requires complete unanimity in order to be enacted... just a simple majority.  That is how democracy works.  That is how the constitutional republic called the United States of America works.  And given the fact that 50% + one vote can enact those programs, that means that 50%-one vote's worth of the population does not get what they want. And THEY can and do get all butt hurt.... and whine.... like you.

ANY Democracy only eliminates the RIGHTS of the MINORITY!! Whereas our REPUBLICAN form of government preserves and encourages the minority and their rights AND opinions- something YOU want to eliminate totally with your "little d" Democracy ****!!

America is a republic and not a pure democracy. The contemporary efforts to weaken our republican customs and institutions in the name of greater equality thus run against the efforts by America’s Founders to defend our country from the potential excesses of democratic majorities. American republicanism and the ordered liberty it makes possible are grounded in the Federalists’ recognition that non-majoritarian parts of the community make legitimate contributions to the community’s welfare, and that preserving these contributions is the hallmark of political justice. But, the careful balance produced by our mixed republic is threatened by an egalitarianism that undermines the social, familial, religious, and economic distinctions and inequalities that undergird our political liberty. Preserving the republican freedoms we cherish requires tempering egalitarian zeal and moderating the hope for a perfectly just democracy.