The "key" to our country, what makes it "special" is not democracy. Anyone with a 12th grade education knows we're a republic. Anyone who loves history will know our senate was appointed by the states until 1913. Anyone who complains about the electoral college will be familiar as well. It's not democracy or republicanism that has made our country unique.
What has made it unique? That our constitution is explicit about what freedoms and rights are reserved for the people and are not to be trampled, touched, or looked at by the government. State, Local, or Federal. That the government would be primarily afraid of it's citizens revolting, rather than controlling their lives.
We've seen this recede over the last 100 years. From Income Tax to COVID lockdowns. Sure each person along the way holding the power thought they were doing the right thing, but the water has reached boiling.
Other countries enjoy democracy or other popular vote systems, but they fail handidly at protecting the individual against the state. My fear, is that we are falling into the same trap.
Democracy is not a panacea. We know anarchists always say "it's tyranny by the majority". And that's true once you boil it down. What makes our country unique is the protection of citizens against the tyranny of other citizens using the government to force people to do things. This I am afraid, has been all but lost.
Should we reconcile this great nation, not balkanize, not be in an antebellum period, not be a Weimar republic, and walk back the rubicon and cross into more quiet waters, we must turn our attention to what made this country great. Resting on our laurels of "Democracy" has only gotten us to the point of Republicans calling the President Illegitimate, and the Democrats calling the SCOTUS illegitimate.
All of these institutions must walk back their power, give the rights back to the people, to be truly afraid of the populace. Each tax collector must shiver when he goes to work, and each police officer be fully aware that a single parking ticket is an act of violence.
Our founding fathers and great men who preceded us recognized government as a necessary evil, one that must be kept at bay, not used as a violent tool to achieve outcomes.
All said, I am afraid, we have lost that. And now we must face the future hoping that someday, another group of smart men can realize something so unique, so right, so innately just and moral was achieved by the signing of the constitution that it must be tried again.
Not random texts I claim no copyright. Random texts, I do not claim copyright.