If Not Anarchy, Then What?

If Not Anarchy, Then What?

By David L. Miner

In the last essay, we discussed anarchy. Many government and media sources have told America so many times that the Right-Wing Extremists hate the government and want to destroy it. They have declared from their electronic pulpits that these so-called extremists want nothing more than to disrupt the government to the extent that America would be forced to retreat back to the Dark Ages.

This is just so much horsefeathers!

As we saw in that last essay, anarchy is actually produced when the government creates so many laws unnaturally restricting the inherent and God-given rights of the people that they quite simply choose to not obey those laws. Most Americans cheat on their income taxes, break the speed limits and in general ignore those laws seen as petty, confusing or just not right. It is this disobedience on the part of the typical person of so many laws created just to control the people that is the beginning of anarchy. If the people of America go much further in their attempt to ignore the laws of this country, and the authority behind those laws, then America will experience true anarchy for the first time in its history.

But these so-called right-wingers do not want anarchy. They do not hate the government. They don’t even want to dismantle the federal government. In fact, this very large group of conservative Americans could never get unified enough to bring about the anarchy that they are so dishonestly accused of wanting. In a recent report to Congress, the FBI had stated that this conservative movement comprised about 125 million Americans. This is a very large group of people to be called “extremists!’ But no one who is familiar with this large group of Americans could ever believe that they could want to bring about anarchy.

The entire right-wing movement known as Constitutional Americans is unified in ONLY one thing! Constitutional Americans are totally dedicated and committed to the government that was created more than 220 years ago. Not necessarily dedicated and committed to what that government has evolved into, but definitely dedicated and committed to the government that America was created to have. And what is that type of government? That type of government is known as a Constitutional Republic.

The Founding Fathers explored and discussed different aspects of just about every form of government known to mankind. They even discussed combinations of those types of governments. After all was said and done, the Founding Fathers decided on a Constitutional Republic as the ONLY type of government capable of giving the degree of freedom they believed all Americans should have.

What’s this, you say? You thought America was a democracy? After all, do we not hear virtually every politician, educator and media talking head tell us daily that America is a democracy? Yes, that is what they tell us. But they are flat wrong and they know it! America is, was , and always will be a republic.

Because our educational system is committed to convincing young Americans that the USA is a democracy, it is entirely possible that you may not know the difference between a democracy and a republic. There are a great many books which have been penned over the years to discuss this very important question, so we will not attempt an

exhaustive description here. But we will offer some small attempt at clarification as the space permits.

In a democracy, the will of the majority always sets the rules. No matter what you or I want (or don’t want!), we must submit to the will of the majority. We will submit voluntarily or we will submit by force, but we will submit to the decisions of the majority in a democracy. In a Constitutional republic, the will of the majority can never displace the rights of the individual. In fact, in a republic, the rights of the individual are carried to an extreme, when compared to any other type of government in history.

Let us make this a little more clear. In a democracy, if Americans want to pursue a course of action, they simply vote on it. If the majority agree, then that course of action becomes law. In a republic, that course of action MUST be Constitutional or it cannot occur. It doesn’t matter if every American wants that course of action, if the Constitution does not allow it America just can’t do it!

Few political decisions are made in our modern America without first taking a number of polls. So many Americans are convinced that we are a democracy that our politicians know a high approval rating is the only thing necessary to pass legislation. The Constitutional basis for the legislation is totally ignored as long as a high number of Americans approve of it.

There have been many democracies over the ages. But no democracy has ever remained strong for very long. As soon as the people realize they can make all the decisions, they simply vote themselves a raise. This is happening in America today. Americans want so many benefits that we have a terrible tax system to support our demands. And things are getting worse every day.

The federal government has given us a detailed and thorough definition of democracy. They would never use the definition today, however, because it points out the clear attempt to move America in a direction that was once considered unconstitutional, even treasonous.

Taken from the American Military Training Manual, 1928:

DEMOCRACY: a government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of direct expression. Results in a mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic, negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether it be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice and impulse without restraint or regard to consequences. Results in demogogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.

Remember, if you are in a democracy and the majority of the people decide to become cannibals, you join them or you become lunch!

"Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention, have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." -- President James Madison