A Republic, Not a Democracy
by Andy Obermann

With the election only four months away will all hear a great deal of political pandering from both sides of the spectrum. There will be pleas from Republicans to stand up for morality and pleas from Democrats to do our part for the common good. Some of the more crafty politicians will mix in the word "right," claiming you have the right to anything from lower taxes to abortion on demand.

Back in May, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry demonstrated this skill by promising to make affordable health care "...a right, not a privilege..." for the American people. This simple play on words creates profound confusion for Americans easily dooped by sly politicians. The simple truth is health care is a privilege, not a right. The only rights we have are those granted in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Everything else we have -- Social Security, Welfare, Abortion -- are privileges granted or taken based on the current interpretation of the law. The difference is important.

A privilege is a benefit gained by meeting a certain set of requirements. For example, to get affordable health care, one has to meet and maintain certain requirements. These include paying deductibles and premiums, having the right job, maintaining basic health minimums, or any number of others. If one meets these requirements, they'll be covered, if not, they won't. Another example, when I was younger, I thought the minute I turned 16 I was entitled to a driver's license -- it was my right. Well I later found that it was a privilege after I failed to meet the requirements set forth and had to try again later.

Taken to its logical conclusion, Sen. Kerry's Americans would have the right to a house, bed, and food, because without shelter, comfort, and nourishment, we'd all be sick. And why not have a right to a car, because without a car, a driver's license is meaningless. Liberals love to push this sense of "rights" onto Americans. It props up a false impression that we live in a democracy. Yes, you heard me right -- the false impression that we live in a democracy. You see, under a democracy, the majority rules. Therefore, if a politician promising a right to health care ran against a politician promising lower taxes to pay for your own health care, the victor would be realized before a ballot was cast. Thank God we are not at that point yet, but we are well on our way.

The main problem with a democracy, as the founders well knew, is that it unavoidably leads to a tyranny of the masses and dictatorship. A country governed by the whim of the populace circumvented by the power of an individual. Many people forget that Hitler, history's most brutal dictator, came to power legally under a democracy, the German Weimar Republic. Hitler was able to sway and intimidate leaders into granting him full authority over German government. His tremendous oration skills gained the support of the German people and unleashed World War II and the holocaust. Madison and Jefferson didn't know the names and places of democracy's demise, but they knew well that it was a possibility .

T he true form of American government is a republic. In fact, the Constitution clearly and bluntly states, "The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a Republican form of government." The important question is what's the difference and why is it important? Under a republican form of government, government is directed by the rule of law, namely (in our case) the Constitution, its bylaws and amendments. However, many Americans are convinced that we live under a democracy, though the term is used nowhere in the Constitution, Declaration, or Bill of Rights.

Under a Democracy, government is directed by the desire of a majority of citizens, inevitably leading to its downfall when, as the British intellectual Alexander Tyler once said, "...the majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury." The idea goes back to Aristotle at least. Tyler claimed that repercussion of this discovery would be the fall of democracy to a dictatorship. A dictatorship may sound unrealistic to most of us, but Tyler was writing before the rise of socialist/communist thought in the West .

Take Kerry's right to health care claim. When the majority of Americans realize they can vote money from the treasury, i.e. taxpayer funded health care, it will create a burden so large that citizens cannot cope with it over the long run . To remedy this, government would take more and more wealth via taxes from the people to support the program -- eventually leading to a borderline socialist state.

America is not at this point yet -- there are still enough responsible, rational, and self-reliant people around to stop it . But if liberals have their way, it will only be a matter of time.

Andy Obermann is a 22-year-old senior at a small private college in central Missouri. He is majoring in history and secondary education at Missouri Valley College.