I wish I had $100 for every time I heard some uneducated Trump supporter tell me this.
A democracy is a system where governmental power is derived directly from the will of the majority. A constitutional republic is a specific type of representative democracy where the people elect officials to govern, but those officials are strictly limited by a supreme, written constitution designed to protect minority rights from majority rule.
I remember a conservative friend who lived in Hawaii who complained that the native people objected to a project directed from Washington to build something at the top of one of their volcanoes, on the basis that this was their holy land. My friend asked, “Doesn’t the majority rule?”
“Not necessarily.” Trying to make my point in the simplest way possible, I explained, “People have rights. My neighbors like me, but imagine that they didn’t, and 20 of them, a 20:1 majority, wanted to come in here and beat me to death. I have a right not to murdered. When you think about it, we’re lucky not to live in a country where ‘the majority rules.’”
“Oh. I guess you’re right,” my friend said.
This concept has an enormous level of popularity in the Republican party. Exactly why?
What’s certain is that property taxes fund our schools, and without them, the common American would be even more ignorant than he is today, if that’s believable.
Now, which party benefits from poor education and a lack of the capacity for critical thinking?
Renewable Energy
Sending Top-Level Criminals to Prison Makes Sense, Unless They’re Americans, of Course
All Americans should know that most other countries act fast and hard against top-ranking people who act corruptly.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is currently serving a 27-year prison sentence for a coup plot and attempting to overthrow democracy.
In 2008, when rich Icelanders had committed financial crimes that led to their country’s economic collapse, do you know what happened to them? Were they re-elected and left to loot their treasury? No, they were sent to prison.
Honest and free nations don’t encourage criminality. They send felons to prison. It’s not that hard, nor is it in any way controversial.
Sending Top-Level Criminals to Prison Makes Sense, Unless They’re Americans, of Course
One of the most remarkable characteristics of Donald Trump is his shamelessness. No matter how many lies he gets caught in, he’s always willing to tell one more–one that’s even more outrageous.
One would think that he and his supporters would eventually reach a limit, but the answer is clearly that such a limit does not exist.
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