What is that? Is there a picture of that? Democratic Republic? What does that look like? Do those two things go together? I remember being told that the United States is a democratic republic when I was in school. I heard the president of the United States say it the other day. He said, "This is a democratic republic." Really? What is that? How does it work? Does anyone know? However it is supposed to work, it seems to be rather painful to live in one and watch how it unfolds. Maybe we are supposed to believe in the Marxist theory of Material Dialectics. We are perhaps meant to live in the assurance that the tension between the two realities of Republicanism and Democraticism will always result in a synthetic outcome that is good for one and all. They are so disparate from one another!
A republic is a reality that bases its behavior on the dictates of a charter. A constitution, you could call it.
A democracy is a reality that bases its behavior on the desires of the majority of the population.
We here in the United States, and in a few other countries around the globe are experimenting with the marriage of the two realities. The tension between the two causes some rather interesting clashes. For me, the most interesting challenge is to watch the struggle between the "word" and the "interpretation" of the constitution. This is the arena in which the majority does not always win. This is the arena that causes supposedly intelligent people to blame the official interpreters of the charter of "legislating from the bench." That always makes me smile. I go back to the interpretation that said that Black People were 3/5 of a person (Dred Scott, Right?). At the time, the majority was all right with that. Now that times have changed, the majority seems to be having a little agida over the fact that Black People have suddenly become 100% of a person.
I also have interesting moments when cultural morality clashes with legal dictates. It seems that the majority would desire that the interpretations of the constitution always be in total consonance with the way morality is understood. I enjoy watching, reading and listening to the wringing of hands and the vigorous shaking of the head over the question of same sex marriage, for instance. One of my memories and thoughts about this type of behavior bring me back to grammar school history class when we learned that some of the causes of the fall of the Roman Empire were debauchery, rampant homosexuality, male prostitution and dishonesty in the use of tax money received. To me, this is a more accurate predictor of the degeneration of our civilization than the prophecies of the last book of the Bible. Amen.
It makes me smile when the majority of people vote to institute a certain behavior as legal activity and the interpreters of the constitution reverse the will of the majority. That reaction usually turns out to be like Etna, Kilauea, Vesuvius and Mt. St. Helens simultaneously in the populace. The nice part about it is, that here in the United States, we are so conditioned to this balance of reality that we "just go back to the drawing board" and reword it.
So, democratic republic we are. We are more than 200 years old (1788). So, we have outlived a good many democratic republics already. History says that we will be lucky to reach 300. In fact, more than lucky. The usual age for any form of government is anywhere between 2 and 3 hundred years. You can look it up. So ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, boys and boys, girls and girls, get ready. It is just possible that the new dictator was born yesterday in Richmond, Virginia... Heee...
Oh, someone just tapped me on the shoulder, no, not her. Ahh, the word is that She's already out and about, some 47 year old high achiever from Sandpoint, Idaho. Watch out for her, she was born in February of a leap year.
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