AMERICANS HAVE LOST THEIR WAY
Americans Have Lost Their Way
Nancy B. Detweiler
Americans talk a lot about democracy. We call ourselves citizens of a democratic form of government; we say we are spreading democracy around the world. But, what does democracy mean?
Webster’s Law Dictionary, 1996 defines democracy as “government by the people, especially rule of the majority …. Supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representatives usually involving periodically held free elections.”
Three factors stand out in this definition of democracy. First and foremost, the absence of any mention of the law. Second, the rule of majority stands without limitations, thereby opening the door to rule by the mob or by an emotion like fear. Third, free elections are usually held. As part of a legal definition, the presence of the word “usually” is significant. “Usually” leaves room for no free elections.
In contrast to a democracy, Webster’s Law Dictionary, 1996 defines a republic as a “government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and in modern times is usually a president …. Power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.”
A republic is government based on law. The head of state is not to be a monarch. Power resides with those citizens who are qualified to vote and the duly elected representatives are to be held responsible for their actions by those citizens. By inference, the definition of a republic requires continual involvement of those citizens qualified to vote. How else can the representatives be held accountable?
The founding Fathers of America created a republic based on the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Our founding documents—Federal Constitution and Bill of Rights—reveal the laws by which our inalienable rights are to be guaranteed. (Black’s Law Dictionary defines inalienable rights as those rights that “cannot be transferred or surrendered,” our inherent rights.)
Article I, Section 1 of the 1971 Constitution of Virginia reiterates these inalienable rights. “That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”
By concentrating on democracy, Americans have lost their way.
Wake up, Americans! We have allowed our nation’s constitution to be trampled into the ground … we have allowed monarchical rule … we have allowed our inalienable rights to be taken from us … we have allowed our governing bodies to fool us into thinking our nation—United States of America—was created to be a democracy … we have allowed corruption to infiltrate and render rotten every part of our society. Our nation is crumbling and Americans have allowed it.
Wake up, Americans! We have lost our way!
