A Republic, Not a Democracy

I received an email about democracies, and was asked my opinion.

My opinion is not as important as those of the Founding Fathers, hence, my response:

"They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men." --John Adams, Novanglus No. 7, 1775

We are not a democracy. We are a republic. The Electoral College was put in place to protect us from the excesses of democracy.

The Founding Fathers purposely did not make this country a democracy. The United States is a Republic, equipped with checks and balances at all levels of government, including the voting process. Democracies were proven, according to the founders, to be failures.

John Adams was quoted to say, “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”

Thomas Jefferson said, “The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”

The founders are not the only historical figures to recognize that a democracy opposes liberty.

Karl Marx once said, “Democracy is the road to socialism.”

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary