On the steps of Independence Hall, 17 September, 1787, Eliza Powell, wife of Philadelphia Mayor Samuel Powell asked of Ben Franklin “Well doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin, famously quipped “A republic, if you can keep it.[1]”
Note that Franklin never offered consoling words about the “preciousness …of democracy” and did not tell Mrs. Powell “well, soon, a tyranny run by women voters, like you”; because if Franklin were still around he would be aware of the reality that we have an ersatz monarchy of a dozen or so elite crime families (the Biden’s, Kennedy’s, Pelosi’s, Clinton’s et al) whose evil plans for you and I are what I call “The Synthesis of all tyrannies”. The glue that supposedly keeps all of this tyranny together is our “democracy”. That hulking, ghost-like menace that regularly requires this thing called “voting”. Voting is the illusion that “voters” have some control over the federal ‘gubbmint’ (you don’t) and the slightly truer claim that you have some control over your state ‘gubbmint’.
Ironically, as an homage to the Founding Fathers, having and advocating for less “democracy” will actually return “power to [some of] the people.” This was the intent and plain language the framers of the U.S. Constitution bequeathed to us but to reclaim it we’re going to have to make peace with the end of the diabolical notion of universal suffrage. That’s right, the 19th and 27th Amendments must go! and that’s just the low hanging fruit.
“Now just wait a minute, King Dude, everybody has to have the right to vote! it’s what makes our system a democracy!”
I hear you shouting and stomping your feet. Actually, it’s what makes our system the dysfunctional crap show it has become and the Founding Fathers knew this would happen and took extreme precautions against it in their signature work, the U.S. Constitution.
For example, the [sic] “chusing of Senators” was by the State legislatures. The election of the President was by “electors” chosen again, by those same legislatures. There were no “Jefferson-Burr – Change We Can Believe In” stickers festooned on the bumpers of family wagons in 1800 because the family didn’t get a vote but the family did get a vote in choosing a member of Congress and yes, literally, there was one vote for one family provided the head of household had “entered into a state of society” which was determined uniquely in each state. The Founders didn’t trust “suffrage” as a powerful enough check on the government and thus provided that only one branch of the three would actually be chosen by what we call “democracy” today and they had good reason.
In the Federal Convention of 1787 that produced the Constitution[2], the practice of “democracy” was discussed and always as a practice that was followed by horrors.
Edmund Randolph[3], said the general object of the Convention was to…
“ … [provide a solution] for the evils under which the U. S. laboured… the follies of democracy: that some check therefore was to be sought for angst. this tendency of our Governments…He was for offering such a check as to keep up the balance, and to restrain, if possible, the fury of democracy. He thought it would be impossible for the State Legislatures to appoint the Senators, because it would not produce the check intended. The first branch of the [sic] federal Legislature should have the appointment of the Senators, and then the check would be [sic] compleat.”
Note that Randolph thought the Senate should be chosen by The House! Ellbridge Gerry from whom we get the term “Gerrymandering” and Roger Sherman who was a member of The Committee of Five who were responsible for drafting the Declaration of Independence, said, in the same Federal Convention[4].
Mr. Gerry. “The evils we experience flow from the excess of democracy. The people do not want virtue; but are the dupes of pretended patriots.[5]”
Mr. Sherman opposed the election by the people, insisting that “it ought to be by the 〈State〉Legislatures. The people” he said, 〈immediately〉 “should have as little to do as may be about the Government. They want information and are constantly liable to be misled.[6]”
15 years after leaving the Presidency and enjoying his retirement in Quincy MA, John Adams, in his famous dialogue with former, mortal rival, Thomas Jefferson, said of democracy.
“Our hopes, however, of sudden tranquility ought not to be too sanguine. Fanaticism and superstition will still be selfish, subtle, intriguing, and, at times, furious. Despotism will still struggle for domination; monarchy will still study to rival nobility in popularity; aristocracy will continue to envy all above it, and despise and oppress all below it; democracy will envy all, contend with all, endeavor to pull down all, and when by chance it happens to get the upper hand for a short time, it will be revengeful, bloody, and cruel. These and other elements of fanaticism and anarchy will yet for a long time continue a fermentation, which will excite alarms and require vigilance.[7]”
The word “democracy” appears nowhere in the four foundational documents of the founding era, in order:
The Articles of Association.
The Declaration of Independence.
The Articles of Confederation.
The U.S. Constitution & The Bill of Rights.This Independence Day is a good time to conform our minds to the realities and genius of the Founders and begin the process of restoring [r]epublican virtue and rejecting what Ellbridge Gerry called “the dupes of pretended patriots”. You and I know them as “voters”, and it should be a privilege, not a “right” to be one.
[1] https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/constitutionalconvention-september17.htm
[2]. Quotes taken from Max Farrand’s “Records of The Federal Convention of 1787”. Sherman and Gerry’s quotes come from notes taken by James Madison; Randolph’s quote is recorded by delegate William Pierce of Georgia. Farrand’s Records: https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/farrand-the-records-of-the-federal-convention-of-1787-vol-1
[3] Randolph was a delegate to the Federal Convention of 1787 (and then governor of Virginia) who also refused his signature on the Constitution the day Mrs. Powell confronted Dr. Franklin: https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/farrand-the-records-of-the-federal-convention-of-1787-vol-1
[4] ibid
[5] ibid
[6] ibid
[7] John Adams to Thomas Jefferson 16 July, 1814 https//.oll.libertyfund.org/titles/adams-the-works-of-john-adams-vol-10-letters-1811-1825-indexes#lf1431-10_head_053
Great take! I’m so tired of the Communists referring to USA as a “Democracy”….