Is The Usa A Democracy?

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote name='LouisvilleFan' post='1801265' date='Mar 9 2009, 09:24 AM']Oh, the irony...[/quote]
haha! That's a great observation.

[Matthew91]

wow this thread has gone off topic. lawl. Well to answer the question, yes the USA is a democracy. the USA has a representative government which is an indirect democracy.'
Not a direct democracy as many want, but a republic.

Edited March 10, 2009 by Matthew91

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote name='Matthew91' post='1802153' date='Mar 9 2009, 10:48 PM']wow this thread has gone off topic. lawl. Well to answer the question, yes the USA is a democracy. the USA has a representative government which is an indirect democracy.'
Not a direct democracy as many want, but a republic.[/quote]

That's good, because that is what our Founders intended. I recall reading that Benjamin Franklin stated that they created "[i]a representative government which is an indirect democracy[/i]... if you can keep it."

And the U.S. Constitution clearly states that the U.S. "shall guarantee to every State in this Union a [i]representative government which is an indirect democracy.[/i]"

And the Federalist Papers shows that our Founding Fathers, Hamilton in particular, agreed with Plato and Locke and others, that a [i]representative government which is an indirect democracy[/i] was preferable.

And here I thought that our Founding Fathers set forth a Republic.

[Lounge Daddy]

Sorry if that came off as snide.

...although there was a time when the debate board was known for snide snarky and hostile comments. Those were the days. * sigh *

[Matthew91]

I didn't notice any snideness lounge daddy. I think the representative democracy is better than a direct one, for alot of reasons the founders did. one being that the average joes of america go through mood swings and their views change often, you cant run a government that is constantly shifting. This is the same reason the electoral college was put into the constitution and the same reason why senators were originally appointed by the state legislators and not by direct election.

[Lounge Daddy]

[quote name='Matthew91' post='1802808' date='Mar 10 2009, 03:56 PM']I didn't notice any snideness lounge daddy.[/quote]

Oh good.

[quote name='Matthew91' post='1802808' date='Mar 10 2009, 03:56 PM']I didn't notice any snideness lounge daddy. I think the representative democracy is better than a direct one, for alot of reasons the founders did. one being that the average joes of america go through mood swings and their views change often, you cant run a government that is constantly shifting. This is the same reason the electoral college was put into the constitution and the same reason why senators were originally appointed by the state legislators and not by direct election.[/quote]

I do think we are a Democracy now. The push for it began 100 years ago. But I know that our Founders didn't intend us to be a Democracy -- which is simply a form a Socialism. The Founders originally established a Republic. Not a Democracy, not a democratic-republic, and not a representative democracy.

Our Founders liked to keep things simple as possible, and they hated Democracy. I feel the same way.

And I cannot stand terms like "representative democracy." Both because Democracy is detestable, so I don't like the word, and because our Founders didn't call the U.S. a "representative democracy, and because it's an academic word that our Founding Fathers didn't use.

I pledge to the flag, and "to the Republic for which it stands." Not to the "representative democracy" for which it stands. The US Constitution promises "a Republican form of government" ...not a "representative democracy."

After the Constitutional Convention, Ben Franklin was asked what sort of government had been established; he didn't say "representative democracy if you can keep it. Franklin responded "a Republic, if you can keep it." I guess as of about 1900, we couldn't keep it. And it's too bad.