An insightful message from Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party's Presidential Candidate

Almost ALL of the social problems in this country are derived from the fact that Americans don't even know what kind of government they have!  If you are like most people, you think that the united States is a democracy.   If you do, then you are wrong!

Recite the pledge of allegiance.  Notice that it says "...and to the republic for which it stands."  Now open your copy of the constitution to Article IV, Section 4.  (You do have a copy of the constitution, don't you?)  It says, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government..."    If my campaign does nothing but make people aware of the fact that we live in a constitutional republic, then I will consider it a huge success.

So what?  We live in a republic.  What difference does it make?

It makes all the difference in the world.  In a democracy the "majority rules" - and the minority loses.  A hypothetical example can demonstrate the idea.  Pretend that you're a land owner, and that I would like to buy some of your property.  You don't want to sell this property because it's been in your family for several generations.  In a democracy, I could gather a dozen other land owners together, proposing that we divide your land between us.  We will allow you to vote on the proposition, because this IS a democracy after all -- and you will lose thirteen to one.  That's a democracy!

In a republic, nothing can outvote your individual rights!  They are unalienable.  If the land belongs to you it doesn't matter if I have a hundred friends, a thousand friends, or a hundred thousand friends!  YOUR PROPERTY IS YOUR PROPERTY!  It is the government's fiduciary responsibility to protect your rights.  If you are in doubt, read your copy of the Declaration of Independence.   Right after "...life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" it says, "That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed".

Hypothetical examples are fine for illustrating a concept, but real life examples are much better for driving the point home:

During the recent Million Mom March in Washington D.C. an angry speaker asked the crowd why government should pass additional gun control laws.  The crowd responded "Because we SAID SO, that's why!"  This is democracy in action.   The idea that enough people can vote to take away your rights.  What if you belonged to a very small church like the Branch Dividians?  Could enough people vote to deprive you of your religion?  Or do your individual rights outweigh the will of the majority?

Everybody hates taxes and the IRS.  How did the IRS get started, anyway?   In the early 1900's someone proposed a tax on the richest people in the United States.  "Only the top two percent of the people" would be affected we were told.  Since ninety-eight percent of the people weren't affected, they voted to screw their fellow citizens.  This is democracy in action.  It's obvious that the "taxpayer" category has been greatly expanded.  Now everybody is affected..

Most of us agree that taking drugs is self-destructive.  Should we, the majority, vote to prevent people from taking drugs that could potentially kill them?  Don't we have a responsibility to protect people from themselves?  The answer is an emphatic NO!  This is democracy in action.  The War on Drugs has spawned a policy of "asset forfeiture".  Police agencies deprive people of their property based on nothing more than an anonymous phone tip.  The War on Drugs is an egregious assault on our rights to privacy and property, and it should be stopped immediately.

Every day more and more people go on welfare.  The government gives them money which it has taken from you in taxes.  Since a majority of people in this country already get some kind of aid from the government, do they have the right to vote for more of your paycheck?  If so, how much can they take?  Fifty percent?  Seventy five percent?  One hundred percent?  This is democracy in action.  At this point, wouldn't it be easier for people who were still working to just go on welfare?  If everybody is on welfare, there wouldn't be anyone left to tax, and the system would collapse.  This is exactly what happened in the Soviet Union.

These are just a few examples of the evils of democracy.  Our founding fathers abhored a democracy, calling it a "tyranny of the majority".  Sooner or later you will realize that you have no individual rights in a democracy!   WAKE UP, AMERICA!  Read the Declaration of Independence, and start studying the constitution.  Abraham Lincoln said, "We the people are the rightful masters of Congress and the courts.  Not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow men who pervert the Constitution."

-Michael Badnarik