Democracy or Republic
I can’t help but notice, on TV and in the papers, how often the United States is referred to as a Democracy, rather than a Republic.
On August 9th, on the Wall Street Journal editorial page (A 14), Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, Washington, wrote a letter entitled “School Vouchers Diminish Public Education.”
A few excerpts from the submission include the following :
1) Regarding your editorial: Randi Weingarten’s “Racism Rant” (July 24) Public education is, and has always been, foundational to our democracy.
2) ……………while also detailing the threats public schools and our democracy
3) Our collective response to that question will determine whether our democracy gets stronger
Or comes apart
This person is PRESIDENT of the American Federation of Teachers and in one letter referred to the United States, three times, as a Democracy instead of a Republic. Is this what our kids are being taught? If so, it has to stop.
I ask all of you with kids to ask them to name our form of government and see if they answer that it is a Democracy or a Republic. It’s important, and they need to know the difference. I pulled the following paragraph off the internet. These are not my words but are rather the words pulled from the internet. See: http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-democracy-and-republic/
The main difference is that in the case of democracy the majority rules, whereas in a Republic the Government rules according to law. Both of them are governed by constitution too. In a republic the government rules according to the law prescribed by men of caliber. In a democracy, MOBOCRACY prevails. Mobocracy can be defined as political control by a mob.
Think of the last election. We’ve all heard that Hillary Clinton got 3 million more votes than Trump. Trump won because he received more ELECTORAL COLLEGE votes. Each state, based on population, receives a certain number of ELECTORAL votes. Every state actually has a say.
If we were a Democracy, politicians would spend ALL of their time in California, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois. The population in these four states, plus a small number from the other 46 states, would determine who is in power.
Again, ask your school children the question. If they answer DEMOCRACY, you need to spend some time teaching them from our Founding Papers.
