live2011
live2011's JournalThe USA is a REPUBLIC, not a Democracy.
`Let’s be honest, America. The United States of America is not and never has been a Democracy, despite all the rhetoric from the politicians, who are trying to deceive you. The United States of America was founded and instituted as a REPUBLIC, specifically DESIGNED to prevent America from EVER becoming a Land of Equals. The Founders HATED Democracy and openly said so.
“The framers were of the opinion that democracy (rule by the common people) was “the worst of all political evils,” as Elbridge Gerry put it. For Edmund Randolph, the country’s problems were caused by “the turbulence and follies of democracy.” Roger Sherman concurred: “The people should have as little to do as may be about the Government.” According to Alexander Hamilton, “all communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and the wellborn, the other the mass of the people.… The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right.” He recommended a strong centralized state power to “check the imprudence of democracy.” And George Washington, the presiding officer at the Philadelphia Convention, urged the delegates not to produce a document merely to “please the people.”13 Page 8, “Democracy For The Few” by Michael Parenti
“The framers believed the states were not sufficiently forceful in suppressing popular uprisings like Shays’s Rebellion, so the federal government was empowered to protect the states “against domestic Violence,” and Congress was given the task of organizing the militia and calling it forth to “suppress Insurrections.” Provision was made for erecting forts, arsenals, and armories, and for the maintenance of an army and navy for both national defense and to establish an armed federal presence within potentially insurrectionary states. This measure was to prove a godsend to the industrial barons a century later when the U.S. Army was used repeatedly to break mass strikes by miners and railroad and factory workers.” Page 10, “Democracy For the Few” by Michael Parenti
“In keeping with their desire to contain the propertyless majority, the founders inserted what Madison called “auxiliary precautions” designed to fragment power without democratizing it. They separated the executive, legislative, and judicial functions and then provided a system of checks and balances between the three branches, including staggered elections, executive veto, the possibility of overturning the veto with a two-thirds majority in both houses, Senate confirmation of appointments and ratification of treaties, and a bicameral legislature. They contrived an elaborate and difficult process for amending the Constitution, requiring proposal by two-thirds of both the Senate and the House and ratification by three-fourths of the state legislatures.17 To the extent that it existed at all, the majoritarian principle was tightly locked into a system of minority vetoes, making swift and sweeping popular action less likely. The propertyless majority, as Madison pointed out in Federalist No. 10, must not be allowed to concert in common cause against the propertied class and its established social order. The larger the nation, the greater the “variety of parties and interests” and the more difficult it would be for a mass majority to act in unison. As Madison argued, “A rage for paper money, for an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other wicked project will be less apt to pervade the whole body of the Union than a particular member of it.” pp 10-11 “Democracy For the Few” by Michael Parenti
“Though supposedly dedicated to selfless and upright goals, the delegates nevertheless bound themselves to the strictest secrecy. Proceedings were conducted behind locked doors and shuttered windows (despite the sweltering Philadelphia summer). Madison’s notes, which recorded most of the actual deliberations, were published, at his insistence, only after all participants were dead, fifty-three years later, most likely to avoid political embarrassment to them.21"
“The delegates “gave” nothing to popular interests, rather—as with the Bill of Rights—they reluctantly made democratic concessions under the threat of popular rebellion. They kept what they could and grudgingly relinquished what they felt they had to, driven not by a love of democracy but by a fear of it, not by a love of the people but by a prudent desire to avoid riot and
insurgency. The Constitution, then, was a product not only of class privilege but of class struggle—a struggle that continued as the corporate economy and the government grew.” p 16, “Democracy For the Few” by Michael Parenti
Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro did NOT overthrow a Democracy. Cuba was a dictatorship, lead by a Dictator which the USA supported. He overthrew a dictatorship, not a Democracy. You’re thinking of the USA/CIA. We are the ones who overthrow Democracies.
America is truly "the land of opportunity", isn't it?
America is truly “the land of opportunity”, isn’t it? I mean, who could have predicted that a NY real-estate developer who LOST 100s of millions of dollars virtually every year of his career and had to file for bankruptcy 6 TIMES would go on to be elected President of the United States, campaigning as “a really rich successful businessman”? Like they say, “Only in America”, right?
I find it amusing to hear Republicans whine about people “hating Trump” while they seem to have total amnesia about how they treated and talked about Obama (and his family) for 8 years.
About that Democracy thing.
Classical Athens is usually considered “The Cradle of Democracy” but what kind of democracy was it? 20% of the population of Athens were “free citizens” able to vote; 80% of the population of Athens were the slaves and servants of the 20%.
IMO, True Democracy is a 3-legged stool with the 3 legs being Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity (goodwill toward each other or “solidarity”). If any of the legs is missing (or too short), the stool will fall over.
WHAT IF this was all Trump's plan all along.
WHAT IF Trump’s plan all along was to act so bizarrely on a daily basis that the media (and the public) is totally captivated by his doings they are distracted from covering what his lawyers are doing, what his “Acting (but not confirmed) Cabinet secretaries” are doing and the kinds of decisions those unqualified judges Republicans are putting on the Federal Bench are handing down???? [It’s a brilliant plan, actually, because it’s working].
A legal question about impeachment
I am not a legal expert. Perhaps there is someone out there who can answer this question. AFTER the House impeaches Trump, do they legally have to then turn it over to the Senate for “trial”? How about just leaving it in the House so the so-called Senate “trial” won’t interfere with the next election? After all, we all already know what the “verdict” of the Senate would be.
Breaking News
Latest Republican Meme:
"Well, yes, it now appears President Trump DID commit impeachable offenses, but that doesn't mean we HAVE to impeach him if we don't want to. So there."
The current Republican Party is a joke, and not a funny one.
ATTENTION "Pro-Life Conservatives", "Christian Evangelicals" and "Constitutional Originalists":
Please show me where in the Constitution of the United States it says (or even implies) that your “religious liberty or religious freedom” allows you to deny to citizens of the United States THEIR fundamental Constitutional freedoms and liberties. I can’t find it. Until you can show it to me, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM MY RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES.
As long as I don’t interfere with YOUR “religious liberty” to worship your god or gods as you please, I expect you not to interfere with MY Constitutional Rights and Liberties.
ATTENTION GOP SNOWFLAKES
Dr. Christine Blasey-Ford was LITERALLY ASSAULTED.
You were only yelled at. Man up.
You are not the victim. You are the adders, abettors and accomplices of rapists and sexual assaulters.
Profile Information
Name: James E. FaubelGender: Male
Hometown: Portland, Oregon
Home country: USA
Current location: Home
Member since: Mon Sep 17, 2018, 11:22 AM
Number of posts: 101
