9 Sep 2022 10:21 am
Do you know what a Republic is? It's any nation state that is not a monarchy, as were all the national governments familiar to the Founders. We are distinguished as a republic from The People's Republic of China, for example, or the former USSRepublics, by that other staple in the Constitution: representative democracy, also a collective term. And the "individual states" you mention also are representative (or collective) democracies. Individualism in this country is a personal and socially influenced trait, not a Founding principle.Skans » 09 Sep 2022, 10:08 am » wrote: ↑ Except the founders did not form a collective. Nothing close. They formed a Republic, consisting of individual states each with their own laws and citizens. Each state at that time was based upon the citizens of those states surviving due to the fruits of their own industriousness. There were no welfare programs, no social security, no food stamps. Churches fulfilled the roll of caring for those in their communities WHO WERE WORTHY of receiving assistance. Churches were voluntary collectivist associations. Yet, at the backbone of every part of our country when it was founded, was the individual. Individualism, individual right, individual freedom, individual self-reliance - these are the things our nation was founded upon.