The USA - A Republic by the People

I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty
and justice for all."

We say the Pledge of Allegiance and in it we all Pledge Allegiance to our Republic and not to a democracy. Our form of Government is a “Republic and not a “democracy”. We should be raising public awareness regarding that distinction. A republic and a democracy are somewhat similar in many aspects except one important one. In a republic the sovereignty is in each individual person. In a democracy the sovereignty is in the group.

A Republic is a form of government in which the powers of sovereignty are vested in the people and they are exercised by the people, either directly, or through a representative chosen by the people, to whom these powers are specially delegated. In a republic the group only has advisory powers; the sovereign individual is free to reject the majority group, it is their right. There is one exception to this in the US form of Republic - if 100% of a jury convicts, then the individual loses sovereignty and is subject to group-think as in a democracy.

A Democracy is a form of government in which the sovereign power resides in and is exercised by the whole body of free citizens directly or indirectly through a system of representation, as distinguished from a monarchy or an aristocracy. In a true democracy, 51% beats 49%. In other words, the minority has no rights. The minority only has those privileges granted by the dictatorship of the majority.

The distinctions between a Republic and a Democratic society should never be considered an idle one. The Constitution of this Country guarantees to every state a Republican form of government(see Art. 4, Sec. 4). No individual state may join the United States unless it is a Republic. The Republic of the USA is one that is dedicated to "liberty and justice for all." The individual rights of the minority are a priority. The citizens of the USA have natural rights instead of civil rights. Everyone is protected by the Bill of Rights from the majority. One vote in a jury can stop all of the majority from depriving any one of the people of his rights; this would not be so if the United States were a democracy.

In a democracy there is not a significant minority: minority rights do not exist except for civil rights granted by a condescending majority of the people. There are only five of the U.S. Constitution's first ten amendments that apply to Citizens of the United States. To state things in a simply way –a democracy is a dictatorship of the majority. One famous person who suffered at the hands of a Democracy was Socrates; he was executed by a democracy: even though he harmed no one, the majority of that democracy found him intolerable.

To explain things a little further - In a Republic, the sovereignty resides in the people, whether it be one or many. One individual may act on their own or through their representatives as they so choose to solve a problem. Further more, the people have no true obligation to the government; instead, the government being hired by the people is obliged to its owners, the people. The people own the government agencies; the government agencies own the citizens. In the USA we have more of a three-tiered cast system consisting of people - government agencies - and citizens. When the Constitution was established it was done by the people to "ordain and establish this Constitution," not for themselves, but "for the whole United States of America." By delegating powers to the government agencies the people gave up none of their own powers. This unique adoption of this concept is why the U.S. has been called the "Great Experiment in self government." The People of this country govern themselves, while they delegate to their agents (government agencies) to perform tasks listed in the Preamble of the Constitution for the benefit of the People. So can self-governing people coexist and prevail over government agencies that have no authority over the People? The Preamble states: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The citizens of the United States are totally subject to the laws of the United States as provided for with the 14th Amendment of U.S. Constitution. The United States is a unique mixture of the two systems of government; a Republican under Common Law, and democratic under statutory law. The People enjoy their God-given natural rights in the Republic. In a democracy, the Citizens enjoy only government granted privileges. Much of this argument points to the views of two major philosophers, Hobbes and Locke - read more about these two here - http://www.essortment.com/all/hobbeslocke_rbtz.htm. Hobbes was more on the side of government. His belief was that sovereignty was vested in the state. Locke was for the people. His belief was based on the principle that the fountain of sovereignty was the People of the state. The Statist prefer Hobbes; Populists lean more towards Locke. In the state of California, the Government Code sides exclusively with Locke. Two sections of their constitution state "The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them." The preambles of both the U.S.A. and the state of California Constitutions also point to the choice of Locke by the People. It should always be the hope of each USA citizen that the U.S. will always remain a Republic, because we value individual freedom. Thomas Jefferson made a statement that liberty and ignorance cannot coexist.

To make things clear we must understand that in the Representative type of Democracy, The Majority’s power is considered absolute and unlimited; its decisions can not be appealed under the legal system that is established to give effect to this form of government. This lends way to unlimited Tyranny-by-Majority. This was what The Framers of the United States Constitution meant in 1787, in debates in the Framing Convention, when they explicitly condemned the "excesses of democracy" and the abuses under any Democracy of the unalienable rights of the individual by the majority. Many examples are provided in the immediate post-1776 years by the legislatures of several of the States. In reaction against earlier royal tyranny, which had been exercised through oppressions by royal governors and judges of the new State governments, while the legislatures acted as if they were virtually omnipotent? There were no effective State Constitutions constructed to limit the legislatures because most State governments were operating under mere Acts of their respective legislatures which were mislabeled "Constitutions." It was not until 1780 that the first true Republic through constitutionally limited government was adopted by Massachusetts, followed by New Hampshire in 1784, many other States later (Connecticut and Rhode Island continued under their old Charters for many years).

In 1781-1782 Thomas Jefferson wrote that "An elective despotism was not the government we fought for . . ." He went on to denounce the despotic concentration of power in the Virginia Legislature, under the so-called "Constitution" which stated: "All the powers of government, legislative, executive, judiciary, result to the legislative body. The Framing Convention’s records show proof that by denouncing the "excesses of democracy" the Framers were not opposing a popular type of government for the United States; their main purpose was to create a sound system of this type. By contending to the contrary is creating a means to falsify history. Falsification such as this not only maligns the high purpose and good character of The Framers but berates the spirit of the truly Free Man in America who at that time happily accepted and lived with gratification under the Constitution as their own fundamental law and under the Republic which it created. They believed and were confident for the first time that the security of their liberties were thereby protected against abuse by all possible violators, including The Majority momentarily in control of government.

The Framers of our Constitution knew that nothing but a Republic can provide safeguards for the people’s liberties which are inescapably victimized by a Democracy’s form and system of unlimited Government-over-Man featuring The Majority. They also understood that the American people would not consent to any form of government but that of a Republic.

A Republic form of government’s purpose is to control The Majority, as well as all others among the people. This is true to protect The Individual’s God-given, unalienable rights and therefore for the protection of the rights of The Minority, of all minorities, and the liberties of all the people in general. The definition of a Republic is: a constitutionally limited government of the representative type, created by a written Constitution--adopted by the people and changeable (from its original meaning) only by the people, through its amendment; with its powers divided between three separate Branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial. Here the term "the people" means the electorate.

The people adopt the Constitution as their fundamental law by utilizing a Constitutional Convention--exclusively chosen by them for this sole purpose, to frame it for consideration and approval by them either directly or by representatives in a Ratifying Convention. This Constitutional Convention, for either framing or ratification, is one of our country’s greatest contributions to the mechanics of government; of self-government through constitutionally limited government. One of the first, specific discussions of this new American development was an entry in 1775 in John Adams’ "Autobiography" that commented on the framing by a convention and ratification by the people as follows: "By conventions of representatives, freely, fairly, and proportionately chosen . . . the convention may send out their project of a constitution, to the people in their several towns, counties, or districts, and the people may make the acceptance of it their own act." To note - first proposal in 1778 of a Constitution for Massachusetts was rejected for the reason that it had been framed and proposed not by a specially chosen convention but by members of the legislature who were involved in general legislative duties, including those pertaining to the conduct of the war.

The Constitutional Convention of Massachusetts was the first successful one ever held in the world (New Hampshire had earlier held one unsuccessfully). Then in 1788, the United States Constitution was framed by the Federal Convention for the people’s consideration and then ratified by the people of the several States through a Ratifying Convention in each State that was specially chosen by the people for this sole purpose. Afterward other States gradually followed in principle the Massachusetts form of Constitution.

This form of establishing constitutionally limited government was designed to put into practice the principle of the Declaration of Independence: that the people form their own governments and grant these governments only "just powers," limited powers, in order to secure and to keep secure, their God-given, unalienable rights. This American system of government thus bars equally the "snob-rule" of a governing Elite and the "mob-rule" of an Omnipotent Majority. This is set up to preclude the existence in America of any governmental power capable of being misused so as to violate The Individual’s rights--to endanger the people’s liberties.

We as American citizens should fight for, defend and preserve our Republican society. This is what our forefathers wanted and knew would be best for this country. They assembled a Constitution that could be amended according to the “Peoples” demands and conform to changing times. We can not allow our Government to run us and control us, this is not the intent of the Laws laid down by our forefathers. We can not allow socialist views and perspectives to be implemented within our Government. For Our Government was created “By the People and for the People”. We create, amend and make the necessary adjustments to this as we the People see fit. The Government does not know what is best for us; We the People shall Govern what is best for our form of Government. – My Explosion of Thought.