"Jackals and Jackasses"

H.L. Mencken once observed, ". . . democracy, worship of Jackals by Jackasses."(1)  Underscores, in a precise fashion, what occurred on Tuesday, November 8, 2016.  Americans went to the polls to take part in a process that is routinely billed as a Two-Party system; which, for all intents and purposes, it is not.  For Democrats and Republicans are no longer parties, have not been for years.  They are merely denominations of the single major party which exists in this Nation, the Corporate State.  However . . .

. . . continuing with this idea of America as a Democracy . . . when did that happen?  When did the Pledge of Allegiance cease being an oath of loyalty to a Republic?  Many presidents refer to this Nation as a Democracy.  Take the current occupant of the Oval Office, who is supposedly a Constitutional lawyer, refers to this Nation ad nauseam as a Democracy.

This Nation was founded as a Republic.  All one needs to do is to read the Constitution; the Federalist; the Debates of the Constitution from the Constitutional Convention.  One can pour over the Constitution word by word and not find the term "Democracy" once.  The United States was founded as a Republic . . . end of discussion.  Once one understands this fundamental aspect in American governance, one can certainly understand how foolish President Bush really was when offering as a rationale for unseating Saddam, that we were bringing Democracy to Iraq.  Who gave us the right to bring a form of government to another country that we ourselves do not practice?

In Federalist No. 10, James Madison wrote, "From this view on the subject, it may be concluded, that a pure Democracy, by which I mean, a Society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the Government in person, can admit of no cure for the mischiefs of faction.  A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by the 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.  Hence it is that such Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incapable 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.  Theoretic politicians, who have patronized this species of Government, have erroneously supposed, that by reducing mankind to a perfect equality in their political rights, they would, at the the same time, be perfectly equalized and assimilated in their possessions, their opinions, and their passions."

Many of the Founders were concerned that Democracy contained the potential of becoming a tyranny of the majority over the minority.  This is why they designed a system of checks and balances to protect the rights of the individual.  For the American Constitution, with its attendant Bill of Rights, was that blueprint for a Republican form of government in which it enshrines the the rights of the individual.  Yet . . .

. . . no system of government will work for the people if the people decide not to take part.  A functioning system of Representative Government will work only with the participation of the People; which in this country, people seemed, in the 1970s, to have decided to take a sabbatical from their obligation from participation in their government.  This left a void, which has since been filled by America's Royalty.  And their call to arms was the Lewis Powell Memo, that Manifesto of American Fascism, August 1971.  Followed in turn by such initiatives as the Project for a New American Century, the Patriot Act, Citizens United. . .   Leaving the Constitution and Bill of Rights reduced in stature and relevance.

At the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked to comment on the efforts of his peers:  I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such:  because I think a General Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing for the People if well administered; and I believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a Course of Years and can only end in Despotism as other Forms have done before it, when the People shall become so corrupted as to need Despotic Government, being incapable of any other.(2)

(1)  See page 5, chapter 1, "Are the Germans Human?" The Tragedy of Nazi Germany, by Peter Phillips, 1969.

(2)  See page 682, "Last Speech," Benjamin Franklin's Autobiographical Writings, by Carl Van Doren, 1945.