Saturday, January 31, 2009

REP Freedom Force Lays Down the Law on Democracy!

Part of my political process of discovery thus far has been an appreciation of what it means to live in a constitutional republic as opposed to a democracy. Although I fully understand that the "republic" part is more important then the "mob rule of democracy" part, are we not founded on democratic ideals? A republic is different than a democracy because it asserts that a 51% vote cannot supercede the inalienable rights of the individual. But what if 51% decide not to stand up for those rights? I suppose that is what gets to the heart of how our republic is a distinct evolution from democracy: at our founding, it was decided by social compact, by a new set of values, by a democratic process, that we would honor the inalienable rights of all our citizens and send a clear message to the world from a city on a hill that not only does might NOT make right, but with a courageous commitment to nature's God and the divinity in every human being, it does not even have to make what is. Those are the values that make us American. It is only as the majority, not by ballot, or by force, or by mob rule, but by the daily assertions of those values, chooses to maintain the republic that our country will survive. It is by no means a certainty.

Democracy Is... by the REP Freedom Force