WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A "DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT"?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

Poll question: WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF A "DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT"?

[Der Blaue Engel]

1. Huh?

Is the title missing some words?

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

6. Not sure why that happened but I corrected it.

:shrug:

Nevertheless, did you read the choices and have a pretty solid guess at the question?

Just wondering.

[mahina]

2. What is the purpose of a noun?

[lpbk2713]

3. Other.

Just .... other.

[Pyrzqxgl]

4. I don't know what the hell you're talking about.

[jmg257]

5. Assuming this is similiar to your other thread...the purpose of our government,

like many other governments, is to secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our posterity, to secure the rights of the people.

BTW, we are a republic, not a democracy. We, supposedly, have safeguards built in to balance "the consent of the governed" (majority) with the primary goal of securing basic rights of the people. See the BoR.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

9. "secure the blessing of liberty"???? Obscure-ishish?

I'd like the illusive and bullshit to disappear.

If the government we have isn't in place to protect us from ALL oppressive forces, why have a government at all?

The "liberty" and "republic" and "rights" assertions don't mean jack crap if the government we have is defying OUR UNDERSTANDING of democracy.

What I seek is a poll of our understanding of a democratic government.

[jmg257]

12. Like it or not , THAT IS the purpose, and role of our government! Have you not read this before...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

So yes, they are there to establish justice, insure tranquility, provide the common defence, & promote the general welfare too. But the primary reason is to SECURE OUR RIGHTS.

Unfortunately, this was not one of your choices.

And AGAIN, we are a REPUBLIC, not a democracy.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

17. If you have a government that is DEFRAUDING and MANIPULATING the people,...

,...

THERE IS NO CONSENT.

Furthermore, a "REPUBLIC" was NEVER INTENDED TO REPLACE A DEMOCRACY as is evident by your own posts.

Those who attempted to BEAT THE TYRANTS at their own game over human history, established a third branch.

Those who are TYRANNICAL seek to destroy what you casually call a "republic" but what was intended to be a democracy.

YOU can call this country whatever you please.

However, there are many who call it what it is SUPPOSE TO BE,...a democracy.

[jmg257]

19. Again, read the Constitution,..

"The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."

But you are right, we are squabeling(sp?) about semantics between a "representative democracy" and a "republic." Bottom line is the majority does NOT always get their way - safeguards against this were built in to our system to prevent that.

Madison:
In our Governments the real power lies in the majority of the Community, and the invasion of private rights is cheifly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents…2. Altho' it be generally true as above stated that the danger of oppression lies in the interested majorities of the people rather than in usurped acts of the Government, yet there may be occasions on which the evil may spring from the latter sources; and on such, a bill of rights will be a good ground for an appeal to the sense of the community.

[jmg257]

20. Tyrants...and so there are VERY specific safeguards built into the Constitution...

meant to keep us safe from tyranny (infringements/loss on/of our rights). These provisions depended on THE PEOPLE, serving in the mandatory role of the armed and trained Militias of the several States, to protect the people's liberties - their role, when employed in federal service was to "suppress insurrections, repel invasions, and execute the laws of the Union." (coincides EXACTLY with the preamble's "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence"). The primary intent was to limit the need/size of that bane of liberty - a standing army...NOT to rely on it (the army) to keep us safe. IT WAS ALSO TO MAKE SURE THE PEOPLE WOULD ALWAYS HAVE MORE POWER (arms) THEN THE FORCE OF A TYRANT - THE ARMY!!!

Despite all this, in the early 1900s the Congress usurped power to create the National Guard to serve in the role that was mandated by the law of the land be filled by the people/militia. (The guard is a FEDERAL entity, armed and funded by the feds, and is a reserve force of the standing army - all quite contrary to the constitutional militia.) But too many people today agree with this new system. They rather DEPEND on the govt, they rather GIVE THEM ALL the power, and then bitch about it when the govt do things they don't like. The states and the people have shrunk in importantance, and we the people let it happen.


Anyway, since that time the standing army has grown HUGE, the national guard is "over there" so there is no one home to protect the people, and this tyrant of a president, and those who will follow, now have power to call out not only the U.S. Guard, but the U.S. Military forces, in this country for ANY reason HE/SHE thinks necessary. Supposedly this is all done to protect us. Hmmmm...


Although the framers, who built in such wise safeguards for protecting our liberties, never put a timeline on tyranny, it seems we are right on schedule...


These days, your vote for your representative is the only power you have. You must change the road to tyranny via the ballet box.

[mondo joe]

7. None of the above. NT

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

10. Then, what, mondo joe? Give it meaning, in your words.

And, it's okay if yours doesn't fit mine,...I just want to hear yours.

[mondo joe]

11. The purpose of democratic government is to give the power of government to the governed,

to distribute that power over as many of its citizens as possible in order to have a self-governing population.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

14. I thought it was about placing power in the governed, the people,...

,...without power EVER being placed in the government.

But, I reckon I am among the many who have been indocrinated into believing something that never existed, except in spirit.

[jmg257]

15. Read the Consitution. ALL power DERIVES FROM THE PEOPLE, but we gave some of that power to the

states, and then to the feds.

When they no longer serve the intent to secure our liberties, it becomes our right, OUR duty, to change that govt.

Declaration

"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends (securing our liberties), it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

18. The "government" has many, MANY laws to suppress and oppress that declaration.

The media has done the job of "pacification",...in non-violent terms.

It is over.

The 'experiment' has failed,...because,...

,...shit floats, always, and the river suffers.

[jmg257]

21. Yes they do...because we the people DEPEND on govt WAY TOO MUCH.

WE want them to provide for OUR OWN security, we want them to provide our healthcare, we want them to provide our education, we want them to regulate our rights (usually "for the children"), we want them to provide for us when we can't provide for ourselves, we want them to tell us what we should eat, and drink, and smoke, and watch, & read, &c. &c.

All these are wonderful notions, but our govt was NOT set up to have this happen - instead of serving the people as hoped, it ONLY ALLOWS THE GOVERNMENT TO GET MORE INVOLVED In OUR LIVES AND SO CONTROL US MORE. We give them ALL the power in the hopes it will be for the better of all, BUT POWER CORRUPTS, and WE suffer because WE do not have it anymore. This was NEVER the intention of the Constitution.

We let it happened because we wanted it. And now we get screwed by those WE CHOSE TO GIVE THE POWER TO.

[mondo joe]

22. Then I guess you haven't looked at the Constitution. It's pretty clear about the

powers of government.

[dorkulon]

8. Poll fails.

You need to communicate better.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

13. In that case, the poll didn't fail, huh.

Huh!

I have needs. I never thought about communicating better being one of them. You are correct.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

16. "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil;

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one." Thomas Paine

Even "democratic" governments can be an intolerable evil.