on majority rules vs. the Republic

I've said the pledge of allegiance countless times in school as I have no doubt anyone who reads this has.  I suppose when you learn a meme like that, it becomes very easy to recite the words and not really think about what they mean.  Most of us can rattle off the pledge and see it simply as an affirmation of American unity, but there's more to it than that which gets lost in our group conscience because no one really talks about the old Republic anymore.  Too inconvenient, too restrictive to those who crave absolute power.  But it's there in the pledge and hundreds of millions of us have recited it: I pledge allegiance to the flag... and to the Republic for which it stands.

So what is a Republic?  A Republic (from the Latin res publica=public affair) denotes a form of government that is both free from hereditary or monarchical rule, has popular control of the state and a conception of public welfare.  In addition, a Republic is a state in which all segments of society are enfranchised and in which the state's power is constitutionally limited. Traditionally a Republic is distinguished from a democracy [Gr.,=rule of the people], as distinct from governments controlled by a single class, select group, or autocrat.  A Republic operates through a representative assembly chosen by the citizenry, while in a democracy the populace participates directly in governmental affairs.

That's a bit of a mouthful so allow me to break it down.  In a Republic, especially a secular one such as ours, the minority is protected from the whims of the majority through elected officials who negotiate a balance between the 2. 

So what happened to our Republic?  Why is it we in the America of 2011 think of ourselves as a mere democracy where the majority rules.  Because of Reagan Republicans.  Allow me to share some of my history.  Back when Reagan was President, I was politically naive and thought he was a great leader (thank goodness I know better now!).  Being naive I didn't know just how corrupt Reagan was or what he and his administration was doing to redistribute wealth to the rich or that he was paving the way for the desecration of our fundamental freedoms.  Reagan saw the US through a Hollywood lens in which America was the cutting edge of progress and science, a global force of good that could save the world through our morals and values, a powerful nation to ensure the world did things our way and he was the great and glorious leader, the leader of the whole free world.  Oy!  I can almost see Metropolis running through his by then addled brain.  

Anyway, it was once he was elected that conservatives began hitting the airwaves with the talk of "this is a democracy and in a democracy, majority rules."  At the time, I didn't think anything of it because I didn't understand the nuances of the Republic and it made sense to me because I was ignorant.  Of course a majority rules, I believed.  But today, now that I'm all grown up, I know better.  But the lie, oft repeated until it became the new national truth (a tactic Republicans still use to this day with far greater success thanks to Fox Republican Propaganda News), is fully embraced --haha!-- by the majority of Americans.

Like Founding Father and revolutionary James Madison once wrote, "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 death."

You can see why this truth might be inconvenient for Republicans, especially those who happen to be fundamentalist Christians.  America has been run by the fundamentalists and other religious folk for decades now, if not a good century and a half and you can see the mess they made of our nation.  Gone are our equal protections under the law; present is the real, dangerous threat of the police state.  Gone is our rights for public redress; present is the threat of "calling in the National Guard" and the tyranny of "free speech zones".  Gone is the wise politician forging the best compromises for ALL of his constituents; present are the abuses of a religious, political majority. 

Now, I do not truly believe that the Christian fundamentalists are a true majority here in America, but as political groups go, they are the most organized, networked, rabid and angry voters.  Why?  Because they have convinced themselves that they are all persecuted by the rest of the nation, which is absurd, but they cling to this whining, desperate idea because it is a sort of permission for themselves to be abusive to the rest of their countrymen through their draconian ideas of what America is and how it should be.  To them, only their rights matter, no one else's because in their brains they are doing everything they can to save out nation from an impending "end time".  Never mind that America is a melting pot of religions, ideas, philosophies.  No, if America will not yield to Christ, they will force their beliefs on all of us whether we like it or not.  So they need a democracy; they need majority rules; they covet it and are glad for it because it is the only way they have to force us all to behave as they would have us to behave.  Don't like it?  Tough tit!  Majority rules!

We are seeing the truth of all of this since the midterm elections.  Voted in on the message of jobs, jobs, jobs the Republican party has instead focused on limiting a woman's medical rights and privacy; on breaking unions and cutting back wages; on repealing child labor laws; on ensuring their wealth redistribution to the rich continues unabated for at least another 2 years; on repealing EPA statutes to protect our environment and our planet; on repealing the already lame health care reform act while they get the very "socialized medicine" for free that they rail against; on oppressing minorities, immigrants and people with a different religion; on cutting social programs for the neediest folk in America; on slashing benefits for the elderly and infirm.  Everything but what they were elected to do from a populace desperate to get back to work so that they can provide a better life than they had to their children.  Instead of the gospel of Jesus, they preach the gospel of the Republicans which is "fuck you America!"

As I watch the protests in Wisconsin, I long for the days of the Republic which was way better than this crappy democracy that shackles or infuriates most of us Americans today.  I especially get angry about it because the Republicans and their counterparts the Republocrats keep talking about shared sacrifice like they've given up anything in these tough financial times.  I defy anyone to show me where they have sacrificed anything.  Instead, the democracy has yielded a majority that firmly believes all the burdens for the problems they have created should be shifted upon the shoulders of the middle and lower classes and that all the sacrifices they speak of should come solely from there.  There is no more equal representation or protection for us, instead all the protections afforded to us by our Founding Fathers have been hijacked away from us and given instead to the rich, politicians and corporations and they view all of us as property or chattel do be dealt with as they see fit.  The sad thing is, until we get our Republic back, they are right.