Issue 32.17
“I pledge allegiance to the flag, and to the republic for which it stands…” Words often said but often not understood. A democracy is not the same as a republic. The simple difference is this. In a democracy, the majority rules. The minorities have no rights unless they can influence other minorities to form coalitions with them to oppose the majority. If the majority chooses self-destructive policies such as spending more than the government can afford or going to war against an unbeatable opponent, that majority dooms both itself and all the minorities to destruction or poverty.
In a republic, the voters choose local representatives who come together to make policies for all the people. Minorities often live in consolidated general areas and, because of this, elect representatives that actually share their concerns, views and hopes. These representatives can stand up for the minority rights of their people and group together to stop the unthinking and destructive ideas of the majority.
Are all majority ideas bad or dangerous? Of course not. However, if the ideas are good, the majority can often convince some of the minority of their merits and create agreement. Are all minority ideas good? That too is not the reality. However, usually ideas that serve only the minority, especially at the expense of the majority will not gain the support of the other minorities and the idea fails to become policy or law.
Put into real terms, this country is mostly made up of minorities of some type or another. If you are part of one majority, you are likely also part of another minority. For example, people of European descent are a majority, comprising well over sixty percent of the population. However, if you are part of this majority, you may also be a part of a different minority such as Farmers (about 1%), Mormon (about 2%) , Catholic (about 20%), German American (14%), Hispanic (7%), Homo-sexual (between 4 and 11% depending on the study and the questions asked) and many other sub groups. Historically, many different minorities have been subject to ridicule and/or persecution by larger minorities or local majorities. If democracy were the main process in the US, many people would suffer at the hands of some type of majority, but creating public policy that ingrained those problems by relying on a democracy would create many problems.
A republic tempers and moderates the influence of the different types of majorities and even the coalition of minorities such as Christians treatment of Jews or Hindus, etc. Laws are usually made more out of deliberation than knee jerk reactions to isolated incidents or commonly held but erroneous beliefs about this group or that. To say that a republic is perfect is not true. Even in our republic, many public policies and laws are reactionary and sometimes thoughtless and cruel. The reality however, is that it is much less common for those things to take place when more of the “minorities” are represented in government and tend to look out for each other as it becomes obvious that mistreatment of one minority can easily spread to mistreatment of others.
In an article for the Washington Post entitled “The problem with our government is democracy”, author Jason Brennan said the following. “…most voters are systematically misinformed about the basic facts relevant to elections, and many advocate policies they would reject if they were better informed. We get low-quality government because voters have little idea what they’re doing.” And “When these voters do bother to seek out information, they turn to news sources and experts who share their bias. They almost never talk to the other side, whom they regard as stupid and evil. When they read material that suggests they’re mistaken, they dig in their heels and conclude they’re still right.
To the extent we have degraded our political process to a democracy rather than a republic, we reinforce those poor choices. We can and really ought to do better and support the ideals of a republic.
Lynn West is a thinker, a teacher and a patriot. You can reach him through email at forgingthefuture2021@gmail.com or through this newspaper. Liberty is a state of being which must be continually created. These articles can help all of us discover the ways we can contribute to that outcome.