We often place our hands over our hearts and pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. We also, “pledge allegiance to the republic”, (not the Democracy), “for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” (Not the collective majority.)
The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence reads; “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed….”
“We, the people…” was not intended by our founding Fathers to mean, We, the collective majority. The “WE” to which they referenced was the unique individual who willingly combines with other individuals from divergent circumstances to ensure that each have the unalienable right to ethically design and morally pursue their personal destiny.
As I’ve attended public hearings and caucus meetings, read citizen’s comments in the Chronicle, and most recently the Pahvant Post, with regards to land use, it is startlingly clear that few of us understand this wonderful pledge of allegiance to this republic that our flag symbolizes. Nor do we understand that we are not a democracy where the majority rules. We, as citizens of this grand country and of this fantastic county belong to a REPUBLIC, as established by the founding fathers, through the implementation of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution and The Bill of Rights.
“The distinction between our Republic and a democracy is not an idle one. It has great legal significance. No state may join the United States unless it is a Republic. (Art. 4, Sec. 4) Our Republic is one dedicated to “liberty and justice for all.” Minority and individual rights are the priority. We, as individual people have natural rights instead of civil rights. One vote in a jury can stop the majority from depriving any single individual of his or her unalienable rights; this would not be so if the United States were a democracy. (see People’s rights vs Citizens’ rights)
The following comes from Training Manual No. 2000-25 published by the War Department, November 30, 1928.
DEMOCRACY:
- A government of the masses.
- Results in mobocracy.
- Attitude toward property is communistic–negating property rights.
- Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, where it may be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences.
- Results in demogogism, (the art and practice of gaining power and popularity by arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people. Pandering to the multitude for selfish reasons. Definition added.) license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.
REPUBLIC:
- Authority is derived through the election by the people of public officials best fitted to represent them.
- Attitude toward law is the administration of justice in accord with fixed principles and established evidence, with a strict regard to consequences.
- A greater number of citizens and extent of territory may be brought within its compass.
- Avoids the dangerous extreme of either tyranny or mobocracy.
- Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment, and progress.
Just as a side note…the manuals containing these definitions were ordered destroyed without explanation about the same time that President Franklin D. Roosevelt made private ownership of our lawful currency (US Minted Gold Coins) illegal. Shortly after confiscating from the citizens their $20 gold coins, the price of gold was increased to $35 per ounce. Almost overnight F.D.R., the most popular president in that century looted nearly half of this nation’s wealth, (and the looting hasn’t stopped), while convincing the majority of the people that it was for their own good. Many of F.D.R.’s policies were suggested by his right hand man, Harry Hopkins, who said,
“Tax and Tax, Spend and Spend, Elect and Elect, because the people are too damn dumb to know the difference”. (obtained from Gary McLeod’s web site)
The destruction of the term “republic” came about as elected demagogues, such as F.D.R. began replacing the ideals of a “republic” with the deception of a “democracy” and the understanding of “republic” quietly slipped from the majority’s consciousness. As a result of this kind of manipulation, an ill-informed public yielded their individual freedoms to the will of a the majority while politicians made use of popular prejudices, bullied individuals who stood against them with false claims, and manipulated the majority with unconstitutional promises in order to gain and retain their power.
This lack of understanding what our Founding Father’s constitutional intent had been, has certainly set an extremely problematic precedence and is a direct result of the lost individual rights that we see today.
The adoption of the concept of INDIVIDUAL liberty is why the U.S. has been called the “great experiment in self government.”It stands to reason that our elected public servants do not understand this founding principle nor are they alone in this misdirection. Our Constitution, this grand experiment in personal freedom, is dying from such lack of understanding and neglect.
George Washington (1796) “a primary object…should be the education of our youth in the science of government. In a republic, what species of knowledge can be equally important? and what duty more pressing…than…communicating it to those who are to be the future guardians of the liberties of the country?”
Thomas Jefferson said that liberty and ignorance cannot coexist.
September 17 was established by Congress in 1956 as Constitution Week. Perhaps we should respectfully request that our voted civic servants take this week off from civic duties and rather than going to D.C. for more “democracy indoctrination” they stay home and study the Constitution… then perhaps go to the schools and teach the students the things that they have learned.
Respectfully,
Kris Ewert
Fillmore, Ut
Amen