Constitutional Minute—The Democratic Party Platform: “Once Upon A Time …”

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Hollow (Ignorant) Pleas To Save Democracy

  1. The Atlantic, February 22, 2021 – The Democrats’ Last Chance to Save Democracy
  2. Congresswoman Madeleine Dean, September 21, 2021 – House Democrats Introduce the Protecting Our Democracy Act to Restore, Strengthen, and Protect Our Democracy
  3. Financial Times, July 24, 2024 – Joe Biden says he is ‘passing the torch’ to save US democracy
  4. MSNBC MaddowBlog, November 7, 2024 – Trump’s win gives Americans who want to defend democracy a big to-do list
  5. 2024 Democratic Party Platform features 28 mentions of democracy as our form of government. There is no mention of the constitutional republican form of government. There are more than 40 instances of audacious attributions of all the perceived ills of our government to Republicans.

A Democracy Would Be Unconstitutional

Article IV, Section 4 stipulates:

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.

I quote from the National Archives Foundation: A Republic If You Can Keep It, “The Founding Fathers were not champions of democracy. It’s true that they were eager to shed a monarchical system that dated back hundreds of years, but they weren’t so comfortable with democracy–or what they saw as “mob rule”–either. So a republic it was. But how did we get to this place, a middle ground between absolutism and popular sovereignty? Learn more about this right enshrined in the Constitution…“

For a deeper dive into our Constitutional Republic’s foundations, I refer the reader to the National Constitution Center, Federalist 10 (1787), authored by Founding Father James Madison

Why would democracy be unconstitutional?

You will find the answer in Article VI, the second clause:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

Obvious Conclusion

Any Act of Congress that calls for a democracy would be unconstitutional. This is because it would not adhere to the definition of the Supreme Law of the Land. A constitutional amendment to obliterate our republican form of government would be like an insurrection, a civil war. This is something wholly intolerable. See Article I, Section 8, the 14th clause: “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.“

In Closing, Founding Father Observations

Ignorance of the law is no excuse in any country. If it were, the laws would lose their effect, because it can always be pretended.
Thomas Jefferson

A nation of well-informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins. Benjamin Franklin

Knowledge is Power

John White
Rockwall, Texas

Published by John White

A lifetime (over 50 years) of experiences with automation and control systems ranging from aerospace navigation, radar, and ordinance delivery systems to the world's first robotic drilling machine for the oil patch, to process-control systems, energy management systems and general problem-solving. At present, my focus is on self-funding HVAC retrofit projects and indoor air quality with a view to preventing infections from airborne pathogens.

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