The Best Form of Government Is...

I am taking an online class called American Government from a local state university and part of that class I have to write three separate papers on three different subjects on my person political views. The following is paper #1: The Best Form of Government Is...

In a diary entry of James McHenry he wrote, “Outside Independence Hall when the Constitutional Convention of 1787 ended, Mrs. Powell of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, ‘Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?’ With no hesitation whatsoever, Franklin responded, ‘A republic, if you can keep it.’” This statement of America being a republic got me thinking because I grew up to believe that America was a democracy. I then also realized the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance where it says, “I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands…” also references that America is a republic and not a monarchy or democracy. It would seem that over time that the meanings have been skewed or the people do not know the difference between the two.

After my research, I believe a Republican form of government is the best form of government rather than a Monarchy or Democracy, which the Founding Fathers intended and set up.

A Democracy needs a full participation of all the people in the decision-making process of government. As discussed in one of our discussion assignments I don’t think that this would work because we, the people, get so busy and occupied with just our daily lives and things that we need to do will not take the time to study the issues or participate in hearings or debates before the vote is taken. Where it has been tried almost always ends in tyranny.

A Republic is a representative form of government where the people elect officials to represent them as a whole and vote on how the majority of the people would vote on the issues of the day. “[James] Madison point[ed] out how an expanding country like the United States could not possibly confine itself to the limitations of a democracy, but must rely upon a representative or republic form of government to protect the ever-expanding interests of its people.” (W. Cleon Skousen, The 5000 Year Leap, p. 154.)

Our government today and how it was originally was set up and design was that of a Republic. The Founding Fathers had hoped that the clear distinction between a Republic and Democracy would continue down through the generations to come, but during the early 19th century the seeds were planted, which I have no time or room to discuss, that later grew to be consistently identified in both the press and the text books as a democracy. This new way of looking at the United States as a democracy was actually designed as an attack on the Constitutional structure of government and the basic rights it was designed to protect.

A republic and the Constitution that was created is designed to protect these basic and “unalienable rights endowed by [our] creator,” which Progressives knew set up a limited government that got in their way of their radical agenda in the name of social justice. The republic and Constitution, I believe, are literally under attack. If lost, the republic and Constitution would fail. The result would be a fundamental transformation of the United States of America….just as Barack Obama said would happen five days before winning the presidential election.

The republic is the best way to protect the interests of the American people and keep government limited and not into every facet of our lives. We elect representatives to represent us and what the majority of the people want…not the other way around. Our elected officials need to set aside their own personal desires of what they believe and start adhering to what the people want and desire. If not, we have the power to elect them out of office and get someone in who will actually serve the people instead of their own selfish desires.