“I go on the great republican principle, that the people will have virtue and intelligence to select men of virtue and wisdom. Is there no virtue among us?”—James Madison
Americans today—indeed, it’s nearly unanimous on our earthly globe—accept democracy (or, “republic,” the representative type of democracy) as the supreme form of human government. The people should choose their leaders; government should be “of, by, and for” the people. That is just a given. It’s an integral part of our zeitgeist.
The Left—the least democratic ideology in existence—endlessly shouts “democracy!” and how Trump is destroying it. The official name of North Korea is “The People’s Democratic Republic of Korea.” China is “The People’s Republic of China.” Russia, under communism, was the “Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.” Even totalitarians (like Democrats) try to hide under a façade of “democracy” or “republicanism.” The “people” must rule.
Of course, we know that “democracy” is a farce in China and North Korea, but we take it seriously here in America. Democracy has basically become the standard by which we judge everything, even morality. The people have the final say. If the people (through their elected representatives) decide something is “moral,” then it is. Same-sex marriage is a perfect example. Earlier generations of Americans would never have dreamed that two men or two women could get “married.” But their morality was based on Judeo-Christian thought, not on “the people decide”—democracy. Now, especially the Left, insists upon this, and we are all to “get in line” with the majority (which is all democracy is, rule by 50%+1), and the Left wants the “minority” to shut up, not fight back. Thank the Lord for “X” and the First Amendment. The Republican Party has largely disappeared from this fight.
But in this “of, by, and for” the people government, indeed, “democracy”—as currently defined by the Left—becomes the judge, even of history. God, Columbus, our Founding Fathers, etc., are all “evil” because they didn’t measure up to the Left’s current standard of what “democracy” means. If the “people” decide that men can become women simply by saying they are, and that children can be mutilated to change their gender at their own whim, then, well, that’s “democracy.” Read the James Madison quote at the beginning of this article again. “Democracy” now defines “virtue” and “wisdom.”
Madison would never have agreed with that, of course. “Democracy is the most vile form of government,” he said, and for the very reasons I described above. What happens if the “majority” becomes unvirtuous and unwise? What happens if the “people” become tyrannical? Can “tyranny” be “democratic?” Adolf Hitler came to power “democratically.” Was Nazi Germany a “democracy”? Is North Korea? They say they are. There is something not quite right here.
“The aim of every political constitution,” Madison wrote in “The Federalist,” no. 57, “is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess the most wisdom to discern, and the most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society, and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” That’s all well and good, Mr. Madison, but how do we define “virtue”? What is “wisdom”? Who defines those terms now? Well, in one sense, folks, the Left DOES want “democracy” now; they just want to make sure they define it. And educate it, which they have done quite well in the past few generations, thank you very much. That is exactly what Madison feared: “Democracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their death.” John Adams concurred: “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” And, historically, they are right, and the truly wise see it happening in America today.
“In the U.S., [just over a century] of full-blown democracy has resulted in steadily increasing moral degeneration, family and social disintegration, and cultural decay in the form of continually rising rates of divorce, illegitimacy, abortion, and crime.” (Hans-Hermann Hoppe, “Democracy: The God That Failed”). Not to mention same-sex marriage, transgenderism, pedophilia, humongous federal debt, an invasion by illegals, the welfare state, and a host of other things our government “of, by, and for the people” has given us. It’s really hard to argue with what the above men said.
The answer, of course, is to make sure that, if we want a democracy, we absolutely must educate the vast majority of people in what true virtue is, elect leaders of virtue and wisdom, and make sure we remove those who do not possess such. Again, the question of “what are wisdom and virtue?” arises, and the Left, and perhaps the majority of Americans, now reject the answer our Founders gave to that question: “Education is useless without the Bible” (Noah Webster). “The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded” (Madison). We’ve seen, and are seeing now, what happens when we let “the people” be the final arbiter of what “virtue” and “wisdom” are. Perhaps we should learn from history and return to the True Source of those most needed ideals.
“The belief in a God, All-Powerful, wise, and good, is so essential to the moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources…” (James Madison). When democracy rejects that, and it usually does eventually, it destroys itself. In a nutshell, the problem with government “of, by, and for” the people is that it elects too many Nancy Pelosis and AOCs. We must restructure the education system.
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