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-Land of the Free
Do We Even Have A Republic Anymore?
2021-03-08
Kurt Schlichter, and I haven't even finished reading the whole thing.
[Townhall] The idea of a republic is that the people, through their representatives, get to make the laws that govern the country, but it appears that’s no longer a thing. What if you made a law, and no one enforced it? Is there even any point to the exercise? And if we can make all the laws we want and not have them enforced except in the limited manner that the people hired to enforce them choose, are we even a free country?

Well, it appears that our garbage elite does not think so, and it’s ecstatic about it.

Remember that dancing scroll on Saturday mornings, if you are of a certain age, and how it sang its ode to the democratic process? "I’m just a bill," it yodeled. The whole premise is that folks we elect go through this rigorous process of review and analysis and, after much work and debate, it pumps out a bright, shiny new law. The underlying assumption is that this actually matters, that when we make a law it gets treated like a law and not a suggestion.

It’s all a lie.
Posted by:Bobby

#16  Lewis H. Lapham 'The Wish For Kings' page 11, Grove Press, NY, Copyright 1993.

Measured as a percentage of the population, the presiding oligarchy is small - probably no more than between 2 and 5 percent - but measured as an absolute number of ambitious and well-connected individuals, the oligarchy is large - possibly as many as 4 million people united in their devotion to the systems in place and the wisdom in office. By and large they are the people who manage the government, own the media and the banks, operate the universities, print the money, and write the laws.
Posted by: Besoeker   2021-03-08 17:06  

#15  Rome was a republic, and it rotten from within. Sounds quite familiar. And contemporary.
Posted by: Clem   2021-03-08 16:49  

#14  It hasn't been for a couple decades. You just noticed? When special interests and self promoting minorities strip the vast majority of their rights, its not even near a republic. There is a fundamental difference between tolerance and demanding submission.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2021-03-08 15:51  

#13  Excellent cmnts and assessment Jometer.
Posted by: Besoeker   2021-03-08 15:07  

#12  #9 - well said.

I certainly would not say I feel that all is lost, by any means.

Darkest before the dawn and all that. Yes. The late 60s and early 70s were pretty scary. Carter's last year in office was shaky too. Many people feared we wouldn't come through it, but we did.

I don't know what you call this at the moment, but plainly we departed the issue map altogether.

The weirdness is almost entirely cultural - a kind of cultural Marxism, supported by elites. China's a threat but we're not at war with them; China's less menacing than the USSR was at its height - see Carter era above. The economy's not nearly as shaky as it was in '79.

There is certainly partial, historic overlap with many situations.

The biggest parallels are with weird moments of mass hysteria. Salem Witch Trials, medieval pogroms against Jews, the late 80s collective madness about phantom daycare child murderers etc.

They make one law for us and keep another for themselves.

Yes. This is by far the greatest threat. The Q of Qatar at this point is which way our law enforcement and National Guard and rank and file AD military will tilt.

Will they enforce these obviously illegal and unconstitutional dictates? How will they respond to a thousand little acts of defiance by the citizenry? Where do their loyalties lie?

Even as I write they are manufacturing new law and regulation to control and confine us to the greatest extent possible. I'm sorry, that is not a republic

Agree 100%. This is an Oligarchy in league with rapacious, extortionist Cultural Marxists.
Posted by: Jomoter Elmavilet5532   2021-03-08 14:31  

#11  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Posted by: NoMoreBS   2021-03-08 13:50  

#10  Bottom line. Stop giving $174000.00 a year to your "representatives".
Posted by: Blackbeard Barnsmell6454   2021-03-08 13:00  

#9  I certainly would not say I feel that all is lost, by any means. But as the result of a misspent youth I have been on multiple, yea numerous compass courses. If there's a lesson I believe it is that no amount of wishing will put you in the desired location; you are exactly where you are like it or not.

I don't know what you call this at the moment, but plainly we departed the issue map altogether. There is certainly partial, historic overlap with many situations. For my part I'm not interested in naming this cluster conjugation, just getting the greatest country on Earth out of it.

They make one law for us and keep another for themselves. From the ongoing destruction of Seattle vs the 7th grade field trip that got out of hand on 6 JAN to the working man's centi-milionaire Bruce Springsteen.

Even as I write they are manufacturing new law and regulation to control and confine us to the greatest extent possible. I'm sorry, that is not a republic and if in some way it still has some trappings to be found here and there it sure isn't OUR republic.

I'm not trying to tell anybody what to think, I don't own the country or the experience. But these are a few of the reasons I think what I think.
Posted by: Cesare   2021-03-08 12:45  

#8  Start by restoring the fundamental underpinning of the republic: The Constitution. Repeal the 17th amendment, audit the Fed, and then repeal the 16th amendment. Those were the “progressive” amendments and have slowly poisoned this nation into mob rule by oligarchs who manipulate the mobs.
Posted by: Greater the Anonymous5721   2021-03-08 11:48  

#7  When the Speaker of the House becomes effectively a Parliamentary Prime Minister, when the US Senate is made into a rubber stamp and when the Electoral College is made irrelevant ... then we will no longer be a Republic.

...And they are really, really pushing for these changes in the interests of (Quote) Democracy (Un-Quote).

"Democracy? You keep using that word. I don't think it means what you think it means."
Posted by: magpie   2021-03-08 11:27  

#6  Trail of destruction after armored cop car is smashed and three officers are injured when SWAT teams respond to 800-strong college party in Colorado
Posted by: Cholulet Spawn of the Munchkins5110   2021-03-08 11:22  

#5  
Posted by: Trusting Civic4189   2021-03-08 11:12  

#4  An imperfect Republic is still a Republic. We have trappings of oligarchy for sure but I think the label Republic still applies.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2021-03-08 10:58  

#3  Makes me thing of Star Trek, 1967 - Mirror, Mirror

Mirror Spock: I shall operate the transporter. You have two minutes and ten seconds.

Captain James T. Kirk: In that time, I have something to say. How long before the Halkan prediction of galactic revolt is realized?

Mirror Spock: Approximately two hundred and forty years.

Captain James T. Kirk: The inevitable outcome?

Mirror Spock: The Empire shall be overthrown, of course.

Captain James T. Kirk: The illogic of waste, Mr. Spock. A waste of lives, potential, resources, time. I submit to you that your Empire is illogical because it cannot endure. I submit that *you* are illogical to be a willing part of it.
Posted by: Bobby   2021-03-08 10:05  

#2  For those who feel all is lost, How did that 1000 year Reich work out? How bout the USSR? How would NKor or Cuba or Venezuela be doing today without outside help from True Believers™ at the US DoS?
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-03-08 09:04  

#1  Wrong question. The correct one is, can we ever get it back?
Posted by: Cesare   2021-03-08 08:37  

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