Tag: Republics

A “Constitutional Republic”

Closing Thought–01Dec21

No this is not some attempt to define or explain the silliness raging across our country…..

I seems that some small town in California has had enough on Covid mandates…..

A small city in northern California where many residents have grown weary of COVID mandates has declared itself a “constitutional republic.” The declaration passed in a 6-1 vote this month by Oroville City Council states that the city will not enforce orders issued by the state and federal governments “that are overreaching or clearly violate our constitutionally protected rights,” the Los Angeles Times reports. Vice Mayor Scott Thompson says the last straw for him was the vaccine mandate for students over 12 introduced by Gov. Gavin Newsom last month. He says he’s not anti-mask or against other people getting vaccinated, but vaccine mandates are “crossing the line.”

Thompson and other city officials describe the declaration as a way to send a message. Mayor Chuck Reynolds told the East Bay Times that in practical terms, declaring the city a republic “doesn’t change anything,” but is “simply reminding people what kind of government we live under and that they do have personal choices and freedoms.” UC Davis Law Professor Lisa Pruitt tells CBS Sacramento that the resolution probably doesn’t have any binding legal authority. Schools in Oroville remain under the state’s jurisdiction and city officials stress that they’re not actually moving toward seceding from California or the United States.

Oroville, the seat of Butte County, has a population of around 20,000, with almost equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats. Vaccination rates are well below the state average and COVID infection rates are high. City officials say most business owners support the declaration. Opponents include Celia Hirschman, whose father died from COVID three months ago. “It says we’re cowboys, and we’re not going to live by your rules,” she tells the Times. “I don’t think it’s about open dialogue at all. I feel it’s a dangerous measure that they have no business adding to our charter.”

More games during the pandemic…..this does nothing to keep people safe or save lives…..it’s only purpose is to make the profit chasers happy.

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It Is Not A Democracy

You know that there is always someone going to point out the US is not  democracy but rather a republic…..usually it is someone that is trying to make a point but have nothing to add to the conversation…..

It is true we are a republic…meaning that we cannot elect the president directly….instead it has to go through the whole electoral college thing.

Personally, I have stated many times that the EC has run its course and it is time to get rid of that dinosaur from our early days.

It will not be eliminated simple because our country can only support the 2 party system……according to some government would collapse if we ever rid ourselves of the EC….that the US would slide into anarchy.

I disagree.

The wealthy elite that are our founders did not want a democracy……..

I’ve already confessed my bad attitude about the Electoral College system. And I’ve listed 10 of the potentially serious ways it can screw up our choice of national leaders. The trouble with such a list is that it implies that we have somehow been saddled with the worst system possible. It needs to be said that no system for choosing a national leader would be perfect (although I do believe that considering the anachronistic elements of our system, we could definitely do better).

All this system-bashing could also begin to imply that I have no respect or appreciation for the Framers. That’s not so. Although I don’t seem to have the normal allotment of reverence for the Constitution or its authors, I see them as very smart guys, many of them heroes of the War for Independence, who came to Philadelphia in the summer 1787 hoping to — and trying hard to — make things better.

https://www.minnpost.com/eric-black-ink/2012/10/why-constitution-s-framers-didn-t-want-us-directly-elect-president

One in a series of articles. You can read the whole series here.

What Fate The Republic?

How many times have you heard some political wannabe tell you that the US is not a democracy but rather a republic?  Most times it some well meaning Rightie that wants to point that out when others write about the things that is going wrong with this country.

I will admit that they are right (you do not know how hard that is for me to admit for I dislike most Right wing dullards)…..and since they are right and this is nothing more than a republic …..is there an expiration date?

Whither the American republic? It is worth remembering that no one founds a republic believing the republic will last forever. To believe such a thing automatically negates one’s conservatism. Like all living things, a republic must experience a birth, a middle age, and a death. The question is never if a republic will die, but when. The stronger its soul, the healthier its body. Conversely, the less a people have a purpose, the faster will they decline. A republic, American or not, is a res publica—a common good, a good thing, a public thing. Whether our government still resembles the republic of the American founders is yet another question, and one for another post.

It is also worth remembering that in the long history of western civilization, no political arrangement—with only the rarest exceptions—has lasted more than a few centuries. Political bodies come and go. The two longest lived institutions in the West are not political, but, ethnic and religious. The oldest sustained cohesive people in the world are the Jews, and the oldest institution in the West is the Latin church. We can conservatively date the first at 4,000 years old and, the second, at roughly 2,000 years old. Not a single political body that existed during the time of the Pentecost still exists today. Indeed, even the very form of government that so predominates in the world—the roughly 200 nation states of the world—did not exist until the fifteenth century.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/birzer/the-republic-was-never-supposed-to-be-forever/

When is our expiration date?  Are we living that day now?

What Happened To Democracy?

Let’s play politics today……there is plenty of chatter but little dialog…….

There is a lot going on in this country, the good old US of A, you know that shining light of democracy that we love to point to as the cure for all ails?

Before I go any further….please if you want to attack this post do NOT use the BS of “we are not a democratic country but rather a republic and a representative republic at that…….if you believe this then everyone needs to cease the use of the words “democracy” and “democratic”  (notice that is a small “D”)….it is that simple…..cannot have both no matter how much one desires.

One of the main tenets of a democracy is the free and unhindered elections and the right to vote.  In the last years there seems to be a push to make voting more difficult……I am not talking about the elimination of the right just that there are laws that make it a wee bit more difficult to do so……another thing….please do not use the voter ID thing as a defense……that has nothing to do with what I am writing.

This is what I am writing about……..

The Presidential Commission on Election Administration has released its report and recommendations, and reasonable people everywhere rejoice. The bipartisan commission was formed by Barack Obama following the 2012 election, which was a bit of an embarrassment for a nation that considers itself something of a model democracy. Across the country (but mainly in urban areas and black and Latino neighborhoods), Election Day featured hours-long lines, broken voting machines, inaccurate voter rolls and confusing ballots.

“The Editors” of Bloomberg View declare the report “so resolutely practical that it’s hard to imagine its recommendations stirring much debate, much less controversy.” (They acknowledge that “not all politicians want to make it easier for Americans to vote,” but they fail to specify that that’s more or less part of the Republican Party platform.) Jeffrey Toobin calls it “an unexpectedly bold document.”

The commission’s key recommendations are eminently reasonable: Expand online voter registration, expand early voting, improve and modernize voting machines, and improve efficiency and alleviate wait times at polling places with better training and techniques that have been proven to work elsewhere. Everyone should be able to support all of this, and, best of all, the commission’s recommendations don’t require any federal action at all. They just need to be voluntarily implemented by state and local officials. And how hard could it be to convince state and local officials to make voting easier?

Okay, for Obama haters this will be a point of contention…….only because it is a presidential report….which is just silly……I have read many reports from many states and most of them have some sort of voting “reform” and most of them either want to close polling stations or lessen early voting or shorten the hours or……I am sure you get my drift here.  None of these have anything to do with voter fraud…….they are attacks on the rights of citizens to vote……..PERIOD!

With this assault on our democratic right there is an idea that has more than a little merit……that is a new movement for Americans to embrace….a pro-democracy movement……

What would this movement detail?

One–get rid of cash!  Citizen’s united must be repealed or blown up or whatever we have to do to rid the process of all that cash….it is destroying what little integrity we had……

Two–open up the voting process……..

Three–Prosecute ANY breeches in ethics!…..and that means even minor breeches.  (Think Vitter, Ensign and the coke dude from last week)

Four–Make elected officials work at their job, not at making contacts……(force to work at least 150 days a session)

Five–If you truly want a democracy then go to a direct democracy where the people are involved at almost every stage…..

Without substantial change…..nothing will be repaired…the country will stay in the grips of those that we all profess that we dislike……as long as the money remains….so will be the buying of election….as long as the Congress works less than 150 days a year then no substantial laws will be enacted…..obstructionism will be the rule of the day……as long as the voter is being taken out of the equation there can be NO democracy and less representation…….

So ask yourself…..what has happened to our democracy?

Democracy Vs Republicanism

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Democracy/Republicanism/Government

First of all, by republicanism (it is a small “R”) is not the same as the GOP in any way, although they would like for the voter to think that it is, but in reality it is NOT!

I have been reading and posting on political blogs for over 7 years now and find the whole debate on whether the US is a democracy or a republic…while it is a confusing argument for most people to follow…it is NOT as confusing as the politicians and the pundit would have you believe…….

In my years of political activism I have been chastised for using the term democracy to explain our governance….most time it has been someone in the conservative camp….they inevitably try to correct my thinking by saying that the US is not a democracy but rather a republic….well yes that is true….but I point out that one is not necessarily exclusive of the other……it seems it is in their minds because they can point to the fact that being conservative, ergo Repub, that it gives them some sort of claim to expertise…sorry but it does not!

It is an argument that will not voluntarily go away…..so let me help them out a bit….

While democracy is a complex political concept it is defined as……political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives….and that pretty much tells the tale of the governance in the US….we vote for people to represent us in the nation’s capital, whether they are adequate or not makes NO difference….we voted, they rule….we have a democracy.  And to imply that democracy means some sort of mob rule is just plain absurd.

With that said….what about republicanism?  Sorry guys but.. ….the political orientation of those who hold that a republic is the best form of government…….but that does not help, now does it?  Then how about this?

1.  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.
2.  any body of persons viewed as a commonwealth.
3.  a state in which the head of government is not a monarch or other hereditary head of state.

I know that this will not stop the pretend lecturing of others by those that somehow think that republicanism is somehow different from democracy….but unfortunately they will be mistaken in their chastisement of others who use democracy to describe the governance well all live with….democracy by any other name is still….DEMOCRACY!

They Cry Out For Democracy!

Inkwell Institute

Middle East Desk

Soon the Prez will be making a speech, a major speech on the Middle east….but IMO it will fall on deaf ears….

The narrative in the western media is that the so-called “Arab Spring” is all about the desire of the people for democracy………and with that said I am NOT that convinced of that bold statement……I believe that we Americans would like to deceive ourselves into thinking that all protests are somehow all about the need for democracy and equality……why do I say this?…..Well Walter Lippmann said it best….”No amount of charters, direct primaries, or short ballots will make a democracy out of an illiterate people.”  And illiterate I by no means want to offend….but without a working knowledge of the workings of democracy there can only be a return to tyranny……

I have pointed out that countries like Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Tunisia are good lead stories for newspapers but the people were not necessarily demanding democracy, but rather the opposition to the people in power at the time, because most have taken and held power for decades……democracy is a wonderful concept to try and sell but the truth is most of the ME lives in tribal societies and that is not that conducive to the growth of democracy….tribes depend on a strong head man to lead them and we see how that was gone badly in the past…..

The recent protests and violence in the ME have grown from the fact that most people in the countries in the news work for low wages…..there is little food……prices expand but wages do not…..and other such social problems….most people are not asking to vote on these things just that there needs to be more reforms to make life and living more better for the population…….if true democracy actually takes hold and the will of the people is paramount then the USA is screwed……why?  The West will lose its strangle hold on the policies of the region and the people will throw us out….and then what will we do?

Each one of these countries will flirt with democracy before the strong leader takes the reins again and this cycle could start all over again….and the interests of the big corporations will once again control the policies of the region….thanx to the US.