www.amconmag.com/2005_03_28/buchanan.html
March 28, 2005 Issue Copyright 2005 The American Conservative A Republic, Not a Democracy by Patrick J Buchanan As Herr Schroeder was babbling on in Mainz, during his joint press confer ence with President Bush, about a need for carrots to coax Tehran off it s nuclear program, Bush interrupted the chancellor to issue yet another demandthat the Iranian government listen to the hopes and aspirations of the Iranian people. We believe, said Bush, that the voice of the people ought to be determ ining policy, because we believe in democracy Who, one wonders, is feeding the president his talking points? Is he unaw are that the Iranian people, even opponents of the regime, believe Iran has a right to nuclear power and should retain the capacity to build nuc lear weapons? While 70 percent of Iranians may have voted to dump the mullahs, just as Pakistanis were delirious with joy when they exploded their first nuclea r device, we should expect Iranians to react the same way. What people h ave not celebrated their nation joining the exclusive nuclear club? We believe that the voice of the people ought to be determining policy , said Bush, because we believe in democracy. How does he think the Arab peoples would vote on the following q uestions: Should the United States get out of Iraq? Is it fair t o compare Israels treatment of Palestinians to Nazi treatment of the Je ws? Do Arab nations have the same right to an atom bomb as Ariel Sha ron? If Bush believes he and we are popular in the Islamic world, why has he n ot scheduled a grand tour of Rabat, Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Riyadh, and Is lamabad to rally the masses to Americas side, rather than preaching dem ocracy at them from the White House? If one-man, one-vote democracy came suddenly to the Arab world, every pro-American ruler in the region woul d be at risk of being swept away. Yet there is a larger issue here than misreading the Arab mind. Whence co mes this democracy-worship, this belief by President Bush that the voic e of the people ought to be determining policy? Would Bush himself let a poll of Americans decide how long we keep troops in Iraq? We often hear the claim that our nation is a democracy, writes columnis t Dr. The founders intended, and laid out the ground rules for, our nation to be a republic. The word democracy appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or the Cons titution. Indeed, the Constitution guarantees to every State in this Union a repub lican form of government. Asks Williams: Does our pledge of allegiance to the flag say to the democracy for which it stands, or does it say to the republic for which it stands? Or do we sing The Battle Hymn of the Democracy or The Battle Hymn of the Republic? There is a critical difference between a republic and a democracy, Willia ms notes, citing our second president: John Adams captured the essence of that difference when he said: You have rights antecedent to all eart hly governments; rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human l aws; rights derived from the Great Legislator of the Universe. Nothing in our Constitution suggests that government is a grantor of rights. Williams cites Adams again: Re member, democracy never lasts long. There was never a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. C hief Justice John Marshall seconded Adamss motion: Between a balanced republic and a democracy, the difference is like that between order and chaos. When the Constitution was framed, wrote historian Charles Beard, no re spectable person called himself or herself a democrat. Democracy-worship suggests a childlike belief in the wisdom and goodness of the people. But the people supported the guillotine in the French R evolution and Napoleon. The people were wild with joy as the British, Fr ench, and German boys marched off in August 1914 to the Great War. Our Founding Fathers no more trusted in the people always to do the right thing than they trusted in kings. In the republic they created, the Hou se of Representatives, the peoples house, was severely restricted in it s powers by a Bill of Rights and checked by a Senate whose members were to be chosen by the states, by a president with veto power, and by a Sup reme Court. the lady asked Benjamin Franklin, a s he emerged from the Constitutional Convention. As Jefferson said, Hear no more of trust i n men, but rather bind them down from mischief with the chains of the Co nstitution.
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