Patriot Realm - Patriot Realm - What is America's true form of government? Is the United States a Democracy or a Republic, what is the difference and why does it matter?

His immediate response was " a Republic " He then said " Ma'am - if you can keep it. "

Yet Americans today have been persuaded that our nation's governmental system is a democracy and not a republic The difference between these two is essential in understanding Americanism and the American system Before we discuss political systems however it's helpful to address the confusion that has been spread about the political spectrum. Many have been led to believe that the political spectrum places groups such as communists on the far left; fascists or dictators on the far right and political moderates or centrists in the middle.

However a more accurate political spectrum will show the government having zero power on the far right to having 100% power on the far left. On the extreme right, there is no government. The extreme left features total government under such labels as communism socialism nazism fascism.

This is exactly what happened in Russia and it led to Lenin taking total power. Iin Germany where Hitler's Brownshirts created the chaos that brought him to power.

Princes, potentates, dictators, kings; any form of total government .... those who claim that nazis and fascists are right-wing never define their terms. This amounts to spreading confusion toward the middle of the political spectrum. This type of government is limited to its proper role of protecting the rights of the people.

So let's analyze the basic forms of government. They are:

Monarchy or dictatorship rule by one oligarchy ruled by a few

Democracy ruled by a majority

Republic rule by law

Anarchy which is ruled by no one.

In discussing these we will see that they can be narrowed down to even fewer.

Looking first at monarchy or dictatorship, this form of government doesn't really exist in the practical sense. It's always a group that puts one of its members up front : a king has his Council of nobles or Earl's and every dictator has his bureaucrats or comma czars: the men behind the scenes.

This isn't rule by one even though one person may be the visible leader. it's ruled by a group so let's eliminate monarchy, dictatorship ... because it never truly exists.

Oligarchy which is ruled by a group is the most common form of government.in all history and it is the most common form of government today.

Most of the nations of the world are ruled by a powerful few.

Anarchy means without government. Some people have looked over history and found that many of its worst crimes were committed by governments so they decided that having no government might be a good idea. But this is a mistake because as the ancient Greeks stated " without law that can be no freedom. "

Our founding fathers agreed and held that some amount of government is a necessary force in any civilized orderly society.

In a state of anarchy however everyone has to guard life liberty and property and the lives of family members. Everyone must be armed and movement is severely restricted because one's property has to be protected at all times.

Civilized people have always hired someone to do the guarding: a sheriff, a police force or some branch of government. Once law enforcement was in place, the people were freer. They could leave their property, work in the fields.

The proper amount of government makes everyone freer. There are some who advocate anarchy. Not because they want no government but because they don't like what they have. Tthey use Anarchy as a tool for revolutionary change.

Anarchy is very much like a vacuum where something rushes in to fill it. These calculating anarchists work to break down the existing government with riots and killing, looting and terrorism.

Tragically the people living in such chaos often go to those best able to put an end to it. The very people who started it. They then create a government run by them in an oligarchy where they have total power.

The word democracy comes from two greek words: demos meaning people and Crotty to rule. Therefore it means the rule of the people majority.

It means the law is uppermost, not the government.

America's Founders had a clean slate to write on. They could have set up an oligarchy; in fact there were some who wanted George Washington to be their king. But the founding fathers knew history and they chose to give us the rule of law in a republic not the rule of a majority in a democracy .

To demonstrate the difference in the setting of the Old West, consider a lynch mob in a democracy.

Thirty five horseback riders chase one lone gunman. They catch him and they vote thirty five to one to hang him. Democracy has triumphed and there's one less gunman to contend with.

Now consider the same scenario in a republic. The thirty five horseback riders catch the gunman and vote thirty five to one to hang him. But the sheriff arrives and he says " you can't kill him. He's got his right to a fair trial. " So they take the gunman back to town. A jury of his peers is selected and they hear the evidence and the defense and they decide if he shall hang.

Does the jury even decide by majority rule? No. It has to be unanimous or he goes free.

The rights of the government aren't subject to the majority rule, but to the law.

This is the essence of a republic.

Many Americans would be surprised to learn that the word democracy does not appear in the Declaration of Independence or the US Constitution nor does it appear in any of the constitutions of the 50 states The founders did everything they could to keep us from having a democracy.

James Madison rightly known as the father of the Constitution wrote in essay number 10 of the Federalist Papers " 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 short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. "

Alexander Hamilton agreed and he stated " we are a republican government. Real Liberty is never found in despotism or in the extremes of democracy. "

Samuel Adams, a signer of the Declaration of Independence stated " democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes exhausts and murders itself. "

The founders had good reason to look upon democracy with contempt because they knew that the democracies in the early Greek city-states produced some of the wildest excesses of government imaginable. In every case they ended up with mob rule; then anarchy and finally tyranny under an oligarchy.

During that period in Greece there was a man named Solon who urged creation of a fixed body of law - not subject to majority whims but sadly, the Greeks never adopted Solon's wise counsel. The Romans did - based on what they knew of Solon's laws. They created the Twelve Tables of the Roman law and in effect built a republic that limited government power and left the people alone. Since government was limited, the people were free to produce, with the understanding that they could keep the fruits of their labor. Iin time, Rome became wealthy and the envy of the world.

In the Roman Constitution some learned that they could elect politicians who would use government power to take property from some and give it to others. Agriculture subsidies were introduced, followed by housing and welfare programs. Inevitably taxes rose and controls over the private sector were imposed. Soon a number of Rome's producers could no longer make ends meet . Productivity declined - shortages developed and mobs began roaming the streets demanding bread and circuses from the government. Many were induced to trade freedom for security.

Eventually the whole system came crashing down. They went from a republic to a democracy and ended up with an oligarchy under a progression of the Caesars.

Democracy itself is not a stable form of government: instead it is the gradual transition from limited government to the unlimited rule of an oligarchy.

Knowing this. we as Americans are ultimately left with only two choices: we can keep our republic as Franklin put it or we will inevitably end up with an oligarchy: a tyranny of the elite.

transcript of video published 2013 by RCO64 who describes himself as

a Capitalist Libertarian. I strongly support low taxes, smaller government, fewer social programs, and oppose laws and regulations that limit our freedoms. I believe that modern American Liberalism is an ideology that is the enemy of all people and the scourge of the poor and minorities. I also believe that man-made global warming theory is a political movement not a scientific one and is the greatest fraud ever perpetrated against the people of the world.