Recently, a retiring Democrat accused the Republican Party of wanting to dismantle democracy in the United States. What exactly is democracy, and who, if anyone, has been trying to dismantle it?
We are familiar with the words of the Gettysburg Address in which President Lincoln said the famous words, “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom- – -and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Similar words had been uttered before, in the preface to his translation of the Bible by John Wycliff in 1384, by British politician Benjamin Disraeli in 1826, and in the U.S. by Theodore Parker at an anti-slavery convention in 1850 when he proclaimed, “. . . There is what I call the American idea. . . . This idea demands, as the proximate organization thereof, a democracy, that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government after the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness’ sake, I will call it the idea of Freedom.”
And even earlier in 1830 by Daniel Webster in a speech before Congress in which he stated, “It is, Sir, the people’s Constitution, the people’s Government, made for the people, made by the people, and answerable to the people. The people of the Unites States have declared that this Constitution shall be the supreme law. We must either admit the proposition or dispute their authority.”
Quite literally, a democracy is rule by the people. Because our forefathers foresaw the expansion of the nation and the sheer impossibility of a true democracy in which every law must be voted upon by every eligible voter, they made this country into a democratic Republic, by definition, “a state (country) in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.”
Thus, in our country, the power in the end rests in the hands of the people, based upon the rule of law as laid out in the Constitution. Hence, elected leaders do not have carte blanche to make whatever laws they choose. The power of the people to remove them from office and the parameters of the Constitution exist to keep them doing what the people want them to do, not what they decide on their own to do.
Strangely, Democrats do not seem to understand this. When President Trump was elected in 2016, it was to “Make America Great Again” after years of waffling Republicans and incompetent Democrat leaders. And, with his “America First” policy, he did just that. He did what the people, the majority of the people wanted him to do. He pulled us out of international agreements that simply cost us billions of dollars and in no way made life better for Americans, those who had elected him to take care of their interests. He renegotiated bad trade deals that hurt American businesses, making them fairer for Americans. He saw tax laws adjusted to draw more manufacturing back to the United States from countries where it had been outsourced because of our staggering corporate tax rate. He made us energy independent and an energy exporter. He worked with black ministers, with Sen. Tim Scott, and with HUD Secretary Ben Carson to begin to improve impoverished black communities. He oversaw a booming economy with record unemployment for blacks, Hispanics, and women. He kept us out of war. He governed for the people, for their needs, for their good.
Yet, Democrats, whose party consists mostly of East and West coast elites, do not even recognize the needs of middle America. Like the aristocrats of old, they are most concerned with their own wishes and when they choose to “help,” it never seems to work out. They devise schemes to improve our lives, but those schemes inevitably end up causing more problems and never solving the problems they set out to solve. They don’t listen to the people, to what they need, they simply throw tax money at the problem and forget it as it is squandered away. They forget the government is of the people (given power by the people), by the people (run according to how the people want it run), and most importantly, for the people (to benefit the people of the United States, not the politicians!).
Instead of continuing the energy independence begun under the Trump administration, once in power, Democrats immediately shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, banned drilling and fracking on public land, and when forced to allow it, have taken to stonewalling the companies trying to go after the gas by requiring permits not only to use the land, but for every single time they drill. Because it may take many different drills to make a strike, companies have to wait months for a permit, drill, fail, and wait many more months for a permit to drill a second time and so on. As a result, we are forced to import oil from countries that are not our friends, and prices for gasoline are twice as much as they were before Biden took office with no end in the rise in sight.
Instead of putting Americans’ interests first, as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people should be doing, Democrats are now governing how they want to, with little or no heed for the good or for the desires of those they govern. For nearly two years, Democrats have called for defunding police departments and in many Democrat-run cities have done just that. But while some diehards like Democrat Rep. Cori Bush still loudly support defunding the police, others have suddenly become aware that even their black supporters do not want fewer police to protect them and have tried to distance themselves from that rhetoric leading up to the midterm elections. They assume we will all forget what they have pushed since 2020.
Democrat D.A.s around the country are also releasing criminals from jail without bond and giving others early release from sentences handed down by the courts. They then ignore those who immediately rape and murder upon their release, as if it were not their hands that freed these scourges upon society as crime surges.
While American citizens were being forced to become vaccinated against COVID or lose their jobs, the Biden administration allowed illegals from at least 40 different countries in the world, over 2 million of them in 2021 alone, to simply walk into the U.S. across the southern border where Biden had halted construction on the wall. Many of them tested COVID positive and none of them were required to quarantine or to become vaccinated. Biden then had airplanes fly them to cities around the country in the dead of night, hoping no one would notice. When questioned about the flights, the administration said they were children being reunited with family, but those who saw the passengers disembark from these flights saw mostly single young men. Is this a government for the people, protecting the lives and interests of the governed?
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, officers at eight South Texas ports of entry seized a significant amount of narcotics and weapons in 2021, specifically, 41,713 pounds of marijuana; 8,592 pounds of cocaine, 33,777 pounds of methamphetamine; 1,215 pounds of heroin and 588 pounds of fentanyl. The seized fentanyl was up 1,066% from 2020. They also seized 463 weapons and 84,863 rounds of ammunition. How much more passed the border without their knowledge?
In addition, U.K.’s Daily Mail reports that 170,000 illegals are waiting in Mexico for Biden to ditch Trump’s Title 42, a provision that allowed illegals to be deported during COVID. Biden is set to do just that, despite the dangers involved and the wishes of the majority of Americans. Al-Qaeda has taken note, and is encouraging jihad terrorists to slip into the U.S. in order to massacre Americans here. And Biden will give them a free plane ticket to a city near you.
These Democrats, who repeatedly tell us that Republicans wish to destroy our democracy (forgetting – – – or not knowing- – – that we have a democratic republic, not a democracy), are the very ones to tell you that they know what is best for you, that what you want is unimportant to them. Let in everyone. . . it is humanitarian! Don’t make those poor criminals sit in jail awaiting trial, but keep those Jan. 6 rioters in prison without even appearing in court for over a year! After all, they were mounting an insurrection against the government with their selfies and Conan the Barbarian outfits and no guns, weren’t they?
Wear masks, they say. Close schools. Get vaccinated. And, if COVID surges next winter, the CDC is even contemplating “camps” for those 65 and older who are most vulnerable to the disease. What if we don’t want to live in COVID camps? Doesn’t matter. Democrats know best. Isn’t this the opposite of democracy which is “rule by the people” not rule by the elites?
They also have decided that our children as young as kindergarten need to be taught there are multiple genders (there are only two: male and female) and introduced to condoms and various sex positions, story hours with cross-dressers, the idea that they can change from a boy to a girl or from a girl to a boy even though that is biologically impossible. And if they are white they are taught they are bad because they are mean to people who aren’t white. But if they are not white, then they have no chance at success in this society because the whites have rigged it against them. The white children are traumatized and the children of color are victimized, feeling they might as well not try in school because somehow they will fail anyway. The fact that parents of all skin colors don’t want these destructive ideas taught to their children does not impress those who have forgotten what democracy means. But crossing parents is dangerous as those in Virginia found out when Democrats who claimed parents had no right to know or approve of what their children were being taught suddenly found themselves defeated by the Republicans who do know that democracy means the people’s voice must be listened to!
The Declaration of Independence says in part, “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. . . .” If government derives its power from the consent of the governed, shouldn’t they be governing as the governed direct them to? Republicans think so.
Now, there are really two types of Republicans, just as there are moderate and far left Democrats. A small group of old school Republicans still believe, as do the Democrats, that once elected, you can do what you want, what is most advantageous to you personally, and your constituents can be ignored until the next election cycle. But the majority of Republicans believe fiercely that a government that governs by the consent of the governed means exactly that. They support the rights and freedoms of all Americans and fight for their good and for their safety. But sadly, that is not how they are portrayed by the media and by congressional Democrats, who daily accuse them of every evil until even the most moderate of Democrats begin to believe that Republicans really do wish to destroy this country.
For example, Democrat Representative Stephanie Murphy of Florida has announced she is retiring from political office because, as a moderate Democrat, she can no longer work with her fellow Democrats who are intent upon destroying our capitalistic system and replacing it with socialism. But she shows her total lack of understanding of what a democratic Republic is when she made the following statement about her retirement: “I don’t want to hand this country and the agenda over to a party that’s trying to dismantle democracy [i.e. the Republicans]. But I also don’t want to hand my party [the Democrats] over to the faction that wants to dismantle capitalism. I think both of those forces are dangerous and detrimental to this country.”
And indeed, they are. But the Republicans do not nor have they ever wanted anything but to preserve the democratic principles of this Republic of ours. Democrats have just been brainwashed into seeing every move they make as evil and destructive because in so doing, they can ignore the fact that nothing that they have done has been done with the “consent of the governed.”
The portion of the Declaration of Independence that I quoted above continues “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
Let us pray that enough Americans realize that they no longer live in Safety and Happiness because of the foolish actions of the Democrats and in November, “alter or . . . abolish” the current government by going to the polls and taking both the House and the Senate back for the Republicans. Then and then only will this democratic Republic have a chance to survive!