Sean,
In this entire supposed burst of democracy in the Middle East, take note of this and where it appears we are headed:
Rule by Law vs. Rule by Majority
Just after the completion of the signing of the Constitution, as the Congressional delegates exited Independence Hall in Philadelphia, a woman came up to Benjamin Franklin and asked, "Sir, what have you given us?"
Franklin replied, "A republic, madam, if you can keep it."
Not only have we failed to keep it, most of us don't even know what it IS.
James Madison said: “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 deaths . . ."
US military training manuals used to contain the correct definitions of Democracy and Republic. The following comes from Training Manual No. 2000-25 published by the War Department, November 30, 1928.
DEMOCRACY:
o A government of the masses
o Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of "direct" expression
o Results in mobocracy
o Attitude toward property is communistic--negating property rights
o Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether it be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences
o Results in demogogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy
REPUBLIC:
o Authority is derived through the election by the people of public officials best fitted to represent them.
o Attitude toward law is the administration of justice in accord with fixed principles and established evidence, with a strict regard to consequences.
o A greater number of citizens and extent of territory may be brought within its compass.
o Avoids the dangerous extreme of either tyranny or mobocracy
o Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment, and progress.
o Is the "standard form" of government throughout the world.
The manuals containing these definitions were ordered destroyed without explanation about the same time that President Franklin D. Roosevelt made private ownership of our lawful money (US Minted Gold Coins) illegal. Shortly after the people turned in their $20 gold coins, the price was increased from $20 per ounce to $35 per ounce.
Almost overnight F.D.R., the most popular president this century (elected 4 times) looted almost half of this nation's wealth, while convincing the people that it was for their own good. Many of F.D.R.'s policies were suggested by his right hand man, Harry Hopkins, who said, "Tax and Tax, Spend and Spend, Elect and Elect, because the people are too damn dumb to know the difference".
TAKE DUE NOTICE THEREOF AND CONDUCT YOURSELF ACCORDINGLY . . .
