America is Not a Democracy. Trump Doesn’t Threaten It

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by XXJefferson#51, May 26, 2019.

  1. XXJefferson#51

    XXJefferson#51 Banned

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    Not a Democracy
    A “democracy” is something America is not. Yes, we are a nation in which the people rule. But democracy, in its proper sense, means the direct rule of the “50 percent plus one.”

    This kind of democracy — whatever the majority wants, whenever the majority wants it — is the kind of government the Founders of our country worked hard to prevent. They knew, as James Madison (or perhaps Alexander Hamilton) wrote in the Federalist Papers, that in democratic assemblies, “passion never fails to wrest the sceptre from reason. Had every Athenian citizen been a Socrates, every Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.”

    In 1787, during the debates about the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton asked his colleagues, “Can a democratic assembly … be supposed steadily to pursue the public good? Nothing but a permanent body can check the imprudence of democracy. Their turbulent and uncontrol[ed] disposition requires checks.”

    John Adams, writing 20 years later and several after his presidency, agreed. “Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy, such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes, and no man’s life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure.” In the tenth Federalist Paper, Madison described the democratic...
    https://stream.org/the-myth-of-american-democracy/ America is not a democracy. We are a constitutional republic. We have a representative form of republican government.
     
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  2. XXJefferson#51

    XXJefferson#51 Banned

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    Other than another monarchy dictatorship there was nothing the founding fathers feared more than mob rule or democracy. They designed the constitution to protect us from it. We are proudly a representative form of a constitutional republic.
     
  3. Bob0627

    Bob0627 Well-Known Member

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    This government is nothing close to a Constitutional Republic or a representative form of government (there's nothing remotely close to anyone who represents me or tens of millions of Americans), it's a lot closer to a rogue fascist corporatocracy and illegal (unconstitutional) under Article IV Section 4. "We" do not have any kind of government as envisioned by the founders and haven't had any such thing since at least Marbury v Madison (1806) and probably since the day after the Constitution was ratified. Trump is symbolic of what kind of garbage infests Washington and the cancer that is our pretend government.
     
  4. Kode

    Kode Well-Known Member

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    This is a "democratic republic"; a "representative democracy". All politicians on both sides refer to the USA as a "democracy". Nobody ever said it was a perfect, pure democracy.
     
  5. Mike12

    Mike12 Well-Known Member

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    And what form of self-governing would you suggest in a nation of hundreds of millions who never agree 100% to anything? A system that ensures freedoms, security against foreign and domestic threats whilst providing a venue to agree on policies and legislation, while ensuring checks and balances.
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2019
  6. FlamingLib

    FlamingLib Well-Known Member

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    Sounds like you want to go back to a time when the electors actually picked the President, instead of just being a rubber-stamp, like they are now.

    1. I agree with you.
    2. No elector in their right mind would have chosen Trump.
     
    Last edited: May 26, 2019
  7. XXJefferson#51

    XXJefferson#51 Banned

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    Trump is the storm sent by the public to drain the swamp.
     
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  8. FlamingLib

    FlamingLib Well-Known Member

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    Trump was not elected in the way the Founders envisioned.
     
  9. XXJefferson#51

    XXJefferson#51 Banned

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    A pure democracy is anything but perfect and something to be greatly feared. It’s like two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for lunch.
     
  10. XXJefferson#51

    XXJefferson#51 Banned

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    Yes he was. The way it happened was the perfect check on big state big city mob rule over the rest of us as intended.
     
  11. Dispondent

    Dispondent Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Yes he was, he received the required amount of electoral votes. How do you people STILL not understand this stuff?
     
  12. FlamingLib

    FlamingLib Well-Known Member

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    No, the Founders did not want the EC to be a rubberstamp for voters. It morphed into that over time.
     
  13. FlamingLib

    FlamingLib Well-Known Member

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    No, the Founders did not anticipate (nor want) a system where electors are duty-bound by vote totals, which is what we have today.

    Today, all presidential electors are chosen by the voters, but, in the early republic, more than half the states chose electors in their legislatures, thus eliminating any direct involvement by the voting public in the election.
    https://www.history.com/topics/us-presidents/electoral-college
     

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