"A Republic, Not a Democracy"

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Hi all. I'm making this thread because I want to comment on another piece of political rhetoric that I'm sick of hearing.

"America is a republic and not a democracy." American right-wingers often spew this sort of stuff on the internet.

People who say "America is a republic and not a democracy." will usually go on to define a republic as a country ruled by a constitution. This sounds fishy, so I checked on dictionary.com.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/republic?s=t

"a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them"

In other words, it seems like a representative democracy is a republic.

Now let's talk about constitutions. Lots of people worship the US constitution and, frankly, I think that's a load of crap. There are so many problems with "strict constitutionalism". First of all, the founders of the United States were men, not gods. Thus, the constitution cannot be perfect. Second, the constitution has changed several times in the past via the addition of new constitutional amendments. Third, the constitution is heavily open to interpretation. Thus, the struggle between democracy and plutocracy is inevitable in any country, even if this country has a constitution. Finally, the US constitution doesn't seem to work very well. The USA Patriot Act is a very obvious violation of the Fourth Amendment. Despite this, the Patriot Act was created by George W. Bush and was later Reinforced by Barack Obama. In other words, Republicans and Democrats are both violating the constitution, meaning that the US constitution doesn't work very well anyway.

It seems as though the conflict between democracy and plutocracy is an unavoidable part of civilized life.

I've noticed that most people who use the term "a republic and not a democracy" are American right-wingers. This sounds suspicious. Could it be that these people are trying to support the Republican Party at the expense of the Democratic Party?

Let's get one thing straight. The names of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are essentially meaningless. How do I know this? The Democratic Party was originally a right-wing party. The first Democrat president was a genocidal maniac named Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson. The Republicans are technically correct when they claim that the Ku Klux Klan were originally Democrats, but this proves nothing, given that the Democratic Party was originally a right-wing party. Furthermore, the vast majority of American white supremacists vote Republican and consider themselves to be right-wing. Just ask them. I did.

The first Republican president was Abe Lincoln, but the Republican Party was liberal back then. The two parties later swapped positions during the Theodore Roosevelt administration ... and now both of the parties are plutocratic.

In other words, we cannot judge the Republican Party or the Democratic Party based on their names. Both parties have utterly meaningless names.

Fun Fact: North Korea calls itself the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" ... even though the country is obviously not a democratic people's republic. Judge political organisations by their actions, not by their names.

In reality, America isn't really a republic or a democracy. America is supposed to be a democratic republic. In practice, the country has become a plutocracy. I already explained why in other threads. I hope I don't have to repeat myself.

Addionally, some American right-wingers have told me "Democracy just leads to mob rule." This is demonstrably false. Look at countries that restrict lobbying, such as Canada and Sweden. Those countries are more democratic than the United States because they place legal limits on financial lobbying. Is Canada famous for angry mobs? Nope. It's famous for apologising a lot. Is Sweden run by angry mobs? You tell me.

Furthermore, most modern-day hunter-gatherer societies are true democracies, with no plutocratic corruption whatsoever. In these societies, mental illness is practically non-existent. People in these societies do frequently fall victim to diseases and wild animals, but this is a product of their technological impairment, not their social structure. If you live in a primitive tribe, you may be killed by diseases or wild animals, but you probably won't be killed by another human being ... unless that human being is a civilised invader.

It seems to me that primitive societies are lacking in medicine, but are ideal in terms of social structure. Let's not forget that people lived in these democratic bands for about 290,000 years. We literally evolved to live in this sort of democratic social arrangement. Democracy doesn't lead to mob rule. It makes everything better. The stupidity that we observe in the masses comes from a lack of information, not "evil human nature". Man is a noble savage who has been misled. Most of us have been misled by the plutocratic media, and the plutocrats themselves have become addicted to power, like a drug.

Don't fear democracy. Democracy works.

EDIT: I found an internal inconsistency in my argument. It has since been removed.

A republic is better than democracy. Did you know the founding fathers wanted a republic not a democracy.

Yeah that annoys me too, Ireland and France are also democratic republics. North Korea is also technically a republic. Absolute democracy is tyranny, democracy with individual rights seems to work better however the problem being people just vote for free stuff and the debt keeps increasing until one day the whole system will collapse and democracy will likely collapse too.

I also find it fishy when the right makes the statement that America is a republic, not a democracy. I think they can then argue that not everyone is entitled to a vote.

I get the impression it's just one of those weird quirks of American education, like how you are taught how to be nice to your flag and stuff. People just aren't taught suitable definitions of those words.

^ @Walrus: When I was in school, we were taught to obey, to conform, and to never ask 'Why'. Corporal punishment and public humiliation were the penalties for violating these rules.

[opinion=mine]

America is neither a Republic nor a Democracy; it is a Plutocratic Oligarchy.

[/opinion]

The Founding Fathers originally wanted a Kingdom, with George Washington as their King.

They also let the States define what it means to be a man; as in, "All men are created equal". Dig deeply enough into the historical record and you will find laws that limited voting rights to protestant European white males of English or Germanic descent who owned land from the times when the States were still colonies. People of color, Jews, Catholics, Asians, and other immigrants were prohibited from owning land (in some places), and thus were not considered 'men' -- they were not created equal, it seems.

The Founding Fathers wanted to make certain that their mindset -- and their kind -- would be dominant for many years to come.

1788 - The US Constitution was ratified.
1863 - The Emancipation Proclamation was made, freeing the slaves (+75 years).
1865 - End of the American Civil War, really freeing the slaves (+77 years)
1920 - 19th Amendment was passed, giving women the right to vote (+132 years)
1964 - The Civil Rights Act was passed, really, really freeing the slaves (+176 years).
2018 - 230 years since the Constitution was ratified, and America still cannot accept equal rights for all.

America is a Republic.....it has pretensions towards being a Democracy.

Well... we're getting better.