Topic category:  Decline and Fall of the USA

There has never been a democracy that did not commit suicide. Why? Because democracies are self-destructive. Our Founders knew that.

Despite what you may have been told, taught, or simply assumed, the United States was neither designed to be, nor has it ever been, a “democracy.”

The USA is a “constitutional republic” which is decidedly different from a “democracy.”  In fact,  it is a matter of history that the more the United States embraces the principles of a democracy the more problems are created.

Those who know the truth and yet continue to proclaim the United States a “democracy” do so as part of a long-standing deception designed to undermine our Constitutional Republic by destroying our Constitution piecemeal.

The Founders of the Constitutional Republic of the United States of America understood the dangers of “democracy” and the clarity of their insights provide a brilliant beacon of enlightenment for those who, out of ignorance, believe our nation is a “democracy.”

Our Founders on the dangers of “democracy”:

• “We are now forming a republican government.  Ideal liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.” — Alexander Hamilton speech to the Constitutional Convention, June 26, 1787
  
  
• “The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and ignorant believe to be liberty.” — Fisher Ames’ speech in the Massachusetts Ratifying Convention of January 15, 1788
  
  
• "[In a democracy] a common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole; a communication and concert results from the form of government itself; and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual.” — James Madison in The Federalist Papers (Federalist No. 10), November 22, 1787
  
  
• “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, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable cruelty of one or a very few.” — John Adams, An Essay on Man's Lust for Power, August 29, 1763
  
  
• “Remember democracy never lasts long.  It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.  There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” — John Adams, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814
  
  
• “Pure democracy cannot subsist long nor be carried far into the departments of state – it is very subject to caprice and the madness of popular rage.” — John Adams, signer, Declaration of Independence
  
  
• “It may generally be remarked that the more a government resembles a pure democracy the more they abound with disorder and confusion.” — Zephaniah Swift, author of America’s first legal text
  
  
• “A simple democracy … is one of the greatest of evils.” — Benjamin Rush, signer, Declaration of Independence
  
  
• “The experience of all former ages had shown that of all human governments, democracy was the most unstable, fluctuating and short-lived.” — John Quincy Adams
  
  
• “In democracy … there are commonly tumults and disorders … Therefore a pure democracy is generally a very bad government. It is often the most tyrannical government on earth.” — Noah Webster
  
  
• “Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.” — James Madison
  
  
• “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” — John Adams
  
  
• “A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation in their way. The known propensity of a democracy is to licentiousness which the ambitious call, and the ignorant believe to be liberty. — Fisher Ames, author of the House language for the First Amendment
  
  
• “We have seen the tumult of democracy terminate … as [it has] everywhere terminated, in despotism … Democracy! Savage and wild. Thou who wouldst bring down the virtuous and wise to the level of folly and guilt.” — Gouverneur Morris, signer and penman of the Constitution

It is no wonder the term “democracy” cannot be found in any of its forms anywhere in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution of the United States of America.

Yet, there are those in our nation who promote the false belief that our nation is a “democracy” and who persist in their references to the United States as a “democracy.”

With whom are such people (either knowingly or by ignorance) aligned?

Those who advocate for a “working class” revolution (“power to the people”) advance a strategy designed to elevate the “proletariat” (working class) to the position of ruling class to evolve our nation’s government from a constitutional republic into a “democracy.”

The simplistic and dangerous concept of “one man, one vote” is a tool designed to achieve this “working class” revolution. Much easier to lead an ignorant army than persuade an educated few. Ideally, voters would be objectively educated and informed and have a stake in the promotion of a stable limited government to maximize individual freedom and opportunity. Such is the basis upon which several states formed our Constitutional Republic.

We have strayed far afield from that noble and humble beginning.

Those who seek iron-fisted centralized power to rule by decree (Executive Order) use mantras such as “one man, one vote,” “equal opportunity” and “social justice” to deceive the people into supporting programs that produce just the opposite end. The deceivers always wrap their designs in phrases that have little to do with their real intended purposes. “Affordable Care Act,” “Affordable Housing” initiatives, “welfare,” “undocumented workers,” etc. — virtually every catchy phrase promoting yet another government program that assaults our Constitution. Such programs are always designed to empower government by extending its reach far beyond constitutional limitations and fostering a citizenry dependent on government.

How did this come about?

Through more of the same deceit.

The improperly ratified and highly destructive 17th amendment stripped States of their representation in Congress (the Senate) and struck a dagger into the heart of our Constitutional Republican form of government — all in the name of “democracy.” This one amendment has done more to shred our Constitution and thus destroy our Constitutional Republic than any other single act.

To those familiar with US history it comes as no surprise that this illicit act came at the direction of a Democrat President, the virulent racist and Progressive, Woodrow Wilson, who history will record as the worst (or at least the most destructive) US President of the 20th century. By destroying the composition of our bicameral Congress (the states no longer have representation in the Senate, courtesy of the 17th amendment) the whole structure of constitutional checks and balances on federal power has been shattered. As an example, Harry Reid would likely never have been sent to Congress as a Senator had the 17th amendment not been in force. Even had Reid been appointed by his state’s legislature (as our original Constitution proscribed), Reid’s sorry performance would have earned him a quick recall.

The loss of state representation has created a Senate that is totally dependent on partisan political maneuvering that, in the end, is focused on concentrating yet more power in the federal government. Our Constitutional Republic, created to be the weakest governmental entity, is being slowly reformed into a democracy with the strongest governmental power, making every state and local community subservient to the dictates of a strong national government. This condition is violently at odds with our Constitution.

The Wilson administration pulled the same illicit act in declaring both the 16th (which gave us the income tax) and 17th amendments ratified. In both cases, several states had modified the proposed amendments prior to ratification, so that they did not ratify the amendment as proposed. Consequently, the required three-quarters of the states had never ratified the proposed amendments. Yet the Wilson administration declared both amendments ratified.

Is it any wonder that today we see our Bill of Rights amendments constantly under assault and even ignored? Is it any wonder we witness a president who thinks he can govern by fiat, amending law, ignoring law, and creating law with his pen and his phone?

Those who are at the forefront of this anti-Constitution deception persist in labeling the United States a “democracy,” not out of ignorance, but out of design. They are agents of those who promote the following:

“The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state, i.e., of the proletariat organized as the ruling class….

"Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionizing the mode of production. — Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto

Finally, the enormous irresponsibility of our national news media and public education system contributing to the success of this “democracy” deception should not go unacknowledged. Without the support of an actively complicit news media establishment and a public education system that has evolved into one of public indoctrination rather than education, the great “democracy” deception could never have achieved the success that has brought our nation to the point of near collapse. Sadly, public ignorance has most people blissfully ignorant of how dangerously close that point of collapse has come.

So next time someone carelessly refers to our Constitutional Republic as a “democracy,” politely, yet firmly, remind them that they are, at best, using the wrong terminology.

Bob Webster & Andy Benjamin

Bob Webster
WEBCommentary (Editor, Publisher)

Biography - Bob Webster

Author of "Looking Out the Window", an evidence-based examination of the "climate change" issue, Bob Webster, is a 12th-generation descendent of both the Darte family (Connecticut, 1630s) and the Webster family (Massachusetts, 1630s). He is a descendant of Daniel Webster's father, Revolutionary War patriot Ebenezer Webster, who served with General Washington. Bob has always had a strong interest in early American history, our Constitution, U.S. politics, and law. Politically he is a constitutional republican with objectivist and libertarian roots. He has faith in the ultimate triumph of truth and reason over deception and emotion. He is a strong believer in our Constitution as written and views the abandonment of constitutional restraint by the regressive Progressive movement as a great danger to our Republic. His favorite novel is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand and believes it should be required reading for all high school students so they can appreciate the cost of tolerating the growth of unconstitutional crushingly powerful central government. He strongly believes, as our Constitution enshrines, that the interests of the individual should be held superior to the interests of the state.

A lifelong interest in meteorology and climatology spurred his strong interest in science. Bob earned his degree in Mathematics at Virginia Tech, graduating in 1964.