Republic – Characterized by the principle of equality under the law, one law for all. This requires respect for minorities, since they have the same law applied to them as for all. Lawmaking is guided by this certain principle, and therefore a republic is principled government.
Democracy - "majority will" is imposed on the politicians as a check. But majority rule can turn to excess and may impose an objectionable will on a minority. The result can be systematic oppression of a minority, such as American style race-based slavery. Also, majority rule can disregard rights of individuals for "service to the greater good." This is accompanied by decline of liberty and ascendancy of elitism.
Good government is combination of the two principles: Republic limits government oppression by ensuring principled law making for all in common. Democracy then serves the great majority to check the will of the minority, i.e. political class.
We've had a failure in application of republican principle. This started mostly when the Republican Party fronted Geo Bush as Presidential candidate. Mr Bush is a personally honest man, but his sense of politics led him to trust a more intrusive form of government. A dishonest politician (the usual type) cannot be trusted to intrude into personal life without compromising personal liberty.
Mr Bush encouraged the "new Tone" as he called it. This tone meant he would enlist the furtherest left, maximum intrusion style politicians into his government. This led to the disasters of "no child left behind" (the education bill authored by Theodore Kennedy, and sponsored by Mr Bush) and growing federal debt.
Unfortunately the Republican and Democratic Parties have both failed to listen to the people, short circuiting the check on political ambition normally afforded by the democratic process. The Republicans were tossed out on their ear during the 2006 and 2008 elections. Now the people are awakening to the even more abusive government of the Obama Administration. Personal liberty is suffering at the hands of this corrupt and corrupting politician, Mr Obama.
With the rise of movements like the whimsically named TEA Party, the Republicans have re-awakened to the principles of sound government. Recent moves by Democrats in Congress indicate they have not. Enacting the medical takeover and follow-up "fix" bills against a huge show of popular disapproval show the Democrats need a breather.
So the prediction is the Democratic Party will be outside looking in. This all assumes their recent arrogant behavior is not based on a willingness to further subvert the electoral check on politicians. Florida, Washington, and Minnesota states have suffered reversals of the popular will (i.e. subversion of the electoral process) through the trackless recount method. The political result is more so-called Democrats are running the governmental apparatus.
The popular will definitely indicates widespread disaffection for Democrats. They may seek to stave this off by distraction. The recent arrests of a so-called Christian Militia (http://hutaree.com/) may be designed to serve this purpose. There seems to be no concrete evidence. All one can see or read in the press is US Army instruction videos and vague indictments relating the story of rancor between some neighbors.
Mike Piccione observes,
"Sarah Palin's church suffered an arson attack. A shot was fired at Republican Eric Cantor's Richmond, VA office. A pollster made Rahm Emmanuel angry so Rahm sent him a dead fish. That is a Sicilian death threat. That is left-wing extremism.This docility on the right required the hate filled Party spin-machine to up the ante. They fictionalized a Christian militia out to overthrow the government.
"Right-wing extremism is a peaceful protest for lower taxes. How dare people want to march in favor of lower taxes! What kind of animals want lower taxes and personal freedom?"
This bodes ill. The whole story of armed insurrectionists smells. It too closely serves the purpose of an unpopular government trying to impose more and more restrictions on personal liberty. Therefore, I suspect the intent of this administration and its running-dog lackeys is the restrict or cancel federal elections in the United State for the foreseeable future.
What will we the People do?
