Letter to the Editor: Understanding founders鈥� intentions
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On the TV news, we often hear the Democrats and many Republicans refer to our nation as a democracy, which it is not. It is a constitutional republic.
The word "democracy" does not appear in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution guarantees "to every state in this union a Republican form of government."
The Pledge of Allegiance to the flag says "to the republic for which it stands," not "to the democracy for which it stands."
There are major differences between democratic and republican forms of government. John Adams once stated "you have rights antecedent to all earthly governments; rights that cannot be repealed restrained by human laws; rights derived from the great legislator of the universe. Our Constitution is a protector of rights, not a grantor of rights."
To the framers of our Constitution, it was Congress that posed the greatest threat to our liberties, thus the framers used phrases against Congress in the Constitution like "shall not abridge, infringe, deny, disparage and shall not be violated, not be denied."
All citizens and government officials are accountable to the same law. Governmental power is limited through a system of checks and balances.
Our framers deliberately established a republic instead of a democracy. In a democracy, the majority rules directly or through elected representatives. The law is whatever the government determines it is. Thus, 51% of the populace can subjugate the other 49% of the populace.
Laws represent reason instead of power. Unlike rights envisioned under a republican form of government, rights are seen as privileges and permissions granted by the government, which are subject to being revoked.
Our framers gave us a Constitution equipped with un-democratic mechanisms. One is the Electoral College, which the Democrats criticize and have called for being eliminated. The framers gave us the Electoral College so that, in presidential elections, heavily populated states and cities could not democratically overrun small, sparsely populated states and rural areas.
Today's greatest threat to our republic comes from President Biden and his weaponized government agencies to persecute his political rivals and has conspired with democratic prosecutors in several states to indict and seek to convict and imprison Donald Trump on bogus charges. Biden has the unmitigated gall to declare Trump a dictator.
C'mon man!
Steve Wolverton
Parkersburg