September 1, 2009
The real problem with the right, in this country, is that it is too far left. Most people live within the paradigm that the political choices we have in our society is between the right and left, the conservative and the liberal, the Republicans and the Democrats. But while we are looking at those two options on the political map, let us try, in a Google-like fashion, zooming out on the landscape. When we do this we discover on the right side of the map another landmark called the Constitutional Republic appears. what dawns on us then is that what we call the “right” is really left of the constitution, it is just that the “left” is a little bit farther left of the constitution than what we call the “right”.
When the founders came up with the American constitutional experiment it was out of a very careful study of the history of national politics. One thing was clear to the founders, “democracy” was anathema. “Democracy”, Benjamin Franklin said “is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch”. Democracy, or majority rule, always ends up in an oligarchy where the majority takes power, the leaders of that majority take that power to themselves and the populace is forced to submit.
The founders with the American constitution, created a very unique nation where law is the rule not the majority. This assures that the sheep does not become lunch for the wolves. This form of government is called a Republic. This is what the Roman Empire was until they transformed through the stages of democracy which then quickly slipped into the ruling class headed by the Caesars.
This is why the word “democracy” is not found in the constitution nor is it found in any of the state constitutions. But have you noticed how much we hear it all the time from politicians on both Democratic and Republican sides. Everything is about “democracy.” It sounds so virtuous and fair, but it leads to tyranny. Democracy opens the way for the wolves to have their way and eat the sheep for lunch. Both the “left” and the “right” in our country are so far left of the Constitutional Republic that they do not see the danger of a democracy and how important it is that we get back to the principles of the republic that our founders invisioned.
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