Not a democracy? No, a federal republic.

How we started

My father, a well read man , but deprived by life of much formal education often stressed the titled sentiment.

IMO he was exactly right and I must admit that I seldom agreed with much he said at the time.

Were there always the two factions supporting on the one hand the democracy of the mob, a democracy that sees the US Constitution as a mere enabling mechanism for their side’s desires and ambitions?

Was this the essence of the Hamilton/Jefferson debate?

And on the other hand were there always those who understood the US Constitution as a limited agreement among sovereign entities called States, a limited agreement the boundaries of which could not be breached without the consent of the states. To protect that view the framers built checks and balances into the system at every level and included the 9th and 10th Amendments in the structure.

Is there democracy in the country? Certainly, but it best functions in local jurisdictions where state authority can restrain its greater indiscretions,

What we have now seen as a result of what the hated Trump wrought is the return of “federal republic” side of the argument.

It will be a bitter fight this time around. pl

Ninth Amendment to the United States Constitution – Wikipedia

Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution – Wikipedia

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18 Responses to Not a democracy? No, a federal republic.

  1. Harper says:

    I regret that the Constitution was changed establishing direct elections of US Senators. Prior under the Constitution, the stage legislatures named the two Senators, and this was a further form of check and balance assuring state interests were represented in the upper house with its significant unique legislative powers.

    • Bill Roche says:

      The 16th A. was a powerful blow against our Republic’s power sharing underpinning. Socialists did this precisely to advance federal gov’t control over the states. I consider progressives/socialists as latter day Federalists who never intended to obey the strictures of power sharing and Franklin and Jefferson were right about them. Hamilton, Washington, and Jay were helped by Lincoln who put the final nail in the coffin of our constitution in the War of Northern Aggression. It’s been a long slow ride to leviathon central gov’t since. We need about 30 heros; govs of Republican led states to forego ambitions for president and work to restore our Republic. B/Y Texas and Florida I see none.

  2. Fred says:

    “It will be a bitter fight this time around. pl”

    That is the understatement of the year. I for one am glad to see the curtailing of power of the GS-13 mafia in our administrative agencies. Hopefully the boon-doggles like EPA’s favorite fuel addative, ethanol, will get swept aside too. Or the electric light bulb nonsense, the rules on dishwashers, dryers, and SEER-2 ratings on A/Cs (stand by for that cost and energy hogging change). Let congress legislate those matters and US the EPA’s input if it is actually worth while.

  3. JK/AR says:

    I, speaking “merely” for myself Colonel Sir

    Admire you question more than pronounce.

    Questions Good Sir often say more than any replies do.

  4. Jose says:

    The reason Trump is hated is because the Federal Republic will require less Federal Bureaucracy to be administered.

    The Swamp will be drained.

    This the best thing to happen to America as people realize we do not have to support a self-serving bureaucracy that has become a burden we can not afford.

    • Whitewall says:

      We who approve of so much of what the Court did this week had better prepare for a massive counter punch from the Swamp and all its apparatchiks.

      • Fred says:

        Whitewall,

        Just look at what the EPA is going to do to the Permian Basin. American oil causes climate change, meaning the Democrats won’t control DC. Gotta stop that “by any means necessary ” as their operatives say.

        • Whitewall says:

          Recently I saw a chart that named the locations, Permian included, of all the known oil/gas deposits within or near the United States. The amount of untapped resource would put Saudi Arabia to shame if true. But, like you said, American oil causes climate change. Bad oil, bad bad. Now Canadian oil, Mexican oil, Middle East oil, not as bad. Even oil from Venezuela, ruled by that Bolivarian goof is not as bad, if he will sell us some.

          • Bill Roche says:

            Years ago I read a book entitled A World Lit Only by Sun. It made me understand the connection b/t a reliable power source and civilization. In short, no oil no civilization. But today we make distinctions. Saudi oil goood, Oklahoma oil baaad. China, Africa, S. America, India using “other” oil goood, but using Texas oil baaad. There is more to this than “just” power for civilization. The effort is to make vastly more expensive, power for the “western oppressors” than the rest of the world. Carbon based smog from 80% of the world, goood. Carbon based emissions from Europe and America baaad. You know, I am not always right. So someone explain why I am wrong.

  5. Tom67 says:

    We used to laugh at the USA as the “land of liberty”. Not anymore. You have Florida and De Santis. We have nothing like that in Europe. I hope the US will return to her best traditions.

  6. jim ticehurst says:

    I Still See Our Nation..The United States of America.Founding Fathers as a Constitutional Republic…With the Best Rights They Could Think of The Put into Our National Constitution at that Time…To Assure The Nation and Its States would remain Free from Tyranny… By Creating a Government Of The PEOPLE…and FOR The PEOPLE..A FEDERAL Government…Three Branches…All With Checks and Balances..

    The States Would Have the Same Type Governments. and Powers…BUT Limited To The Powers of the Constitution..

    They Did The BEST They Could…Jefferson and many Others recognized The Institutions and Special Interest People who Began To Try to Buy into the New Federal Government and Legislature..Railroads..Industry..Military ..Radicals..Extremists..Even Then…So did Eisenhower…..and others..Its been a Constant Flow…Back and forth With Testing The Checks and balances..Of the Liberal Minded…Extremism of the Left…The Bolsheviks..Atheists..Racists..Free Thinkers
    who say Democracy and the Democrat Party…Can Push and Challenge the Limits of The Constitution…To the Point Of An Overthrow of the American Government and Two Party System..By Manipulating the Political Process..

    Through “Democracy” and Political Manipulations and Appointments at The Federal State and Local Level…They Controlled and altered the Minds and Will and Moral Values of the People in The Largest Citys…Towns and Universitys ad colleges.

    Now. Its No Longer North or South…Confederate or Union..

    Its an Attempted COUP from with In..The TRUE Collusion..I am Still and Believer in Our Founders..The Constitution..Checks and Balances..Either…The Vothers..The Supreme Court..or Divine..Things Change fast From day to Day.. Domestic andd Foreign.

    I am a Believer In God…The Word of God..His Revelations…His Prophets..Divinly Inspired…The Record and Scribe Events..For Mankinds Knowledge..Also a Very Important Part of the Human Education Experience…May God Bless The United States….and Protect it..Its People..and All The Rights of our Constitution…
    JT

    • Whitewall says:

      The question at this moment is the one for all democracies–Who Rules? America is not alone with its political center nearly gone and a corrupt, hapless elite calling the shots. This elite wants to rule by whim of the moment and will not tolerate any opposition. Opposition may not tolerate them for much longer.

  7. John Merryman. says:

    The problem goes a lot deeper than the nature of the constitution. The origin of Christianity as a Roman state religion was the original top down global construct to incorporate the tribal deities and cultures under one umbrella.

    • Bill Roche says:

      Interesting comment you’ve made. In that connection one could see Luther as a bottom up challenge to the RC Church, a German challenge to an Italien church, or a 15th century example of religious diversification. But what does that have to do w/t federal Constitution?

      • John Merryman. says:

        It’s a similar relationship. Remember democracy and republicanism originated in pantheistic cultures, aka the many as one.
        Rome adopted Christianity for its monotheism, as it was coalescing as the Empire and shedding remnants of the Republic.
        Presumably the original confederation gave precedence to the states over the union, but it didn’t seem to last long.
        The deeper issue is that reality is more a tension of opposites, than any singular state. Even the physical is more positive and negative charge, than any material substance.
        The deeper issue will prove to be the exponential public debt, than the political divide. It might be politics all the way down, but it’s economics all the way up. Like the head versus the gut.
        When they blow up the dollar, the states will start issuing their own currencies, then the pendulum swings back.

    • Deap says:

      “Climate Change” needs to be declared a religion and kept separate from state.

      It has all the elements ascribed to any establishment religion that does get constitutional recognition: true believers, a belief in a higher power, shared rituals and personal statements of faith.

      State can no longer insert “climate change” into every single official pronouncement or funding request, any more than it can request exclusive funding for the Baptists or Presbyterians. Or demand the advancement of the goals of the Evangelicals.

      VP Harris can no longer warn us there will be supply change problems six months hence based solely upon her own personal religious belief system.

      Which is exactly what as she did what she warned in her role as VP spokesperson for the Biden administration that “climate change” will make it harder to buy Christmas presents by delaying the transit of cargo ships from Asian to the western US ports in Long Beach.

      How did she know this besides her own personal religious revelation from her membership in the Church of Climate Change. He personal commitment to her chosen faith should not be directing public policy, just like VP Pence was criticized for his own personal religious beliefs about homosexuality.

  8. notfakebot says:

    There is a serious split in the country politically on how each side envisions what America should be. By 2030, we could see a dissolution of the union, but it could take longer. I see things changing drastically sooner than later.

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