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> America is, in theory, a representative democracy ... America was once a republic, precisely to avoid the madness we are talking about in this thread. One by
by Daniel_Newby 13y ago
> America is, in theory, a representative democracy ...
America was once a republic, precisely to avoid the madness we are talking about in this thread. One by one the protections against mob rule have been dismantled.
- dragonwriter 13y ago> > America is, in theory, a representative democracy ... > America was once a republic The two are not incompatible. And it pretty unquestionably still is a republic and, in form at least, is also a representative democracy.
- Daniel_Newby 13y agoA country with a Supreme Court that believes threshing wheat is interstate commerce is not a republic. Ditto for a country with federal bunny rabbit inspectors.
- dragonwriter 13y ago> A country with a Supreme Court that believes threshing wheat is interstate commerce is not a republic. Ditto for a country with federal bunny rabbit inspectors. I know of no reasonable definition of "republic" under which either of these statements is defensible. "Republic" doesn't mean a system of government that produces exclusively outcomes that meet with Daniel_Newby's approval.
- Daniel_Newby 13y agoGovernment is not an averaging process. You cannot add oligarchy to mob rule, divide by two, and get a republic.
- dragonwriter 13y agothat's a non-sequitur. "Republic" isn't the average of oligarchy and mob rule, or anywhere in between those. It's orthogonal to them. You certainly can have a system with strong elements of both that is a republic (as demonstrated by the essentially prototypical republic, that of Rome.) You seem, again, to be conflating what you like with what a Republic is.