Posted on Oct 23, 2016
The Rachel Maddow Show - Timeline | Facebook
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Edited 8 y ago
Posted 8 y ago
Responses: 2
SPC Jill Drushal, RN, MA
I don't particularly care for her either. I posted the clip for the statement made by Justice Souter. My second degree involved a lot of study about US constitutional history.
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SPC Jill Drushal, RN, MA
Our government is not a true democracy. A true democracy is a system of government by the entire population. If we lived under this form of government, we wouldn’t have time to do anything other than vote. Therefore, “democracy” is an ideal.
Our Constitution outlines a democratic REPUBLIC. Under this form of government, we elect legislators to vote on our behalf at the Federal, state and local levels. Often, those legislators get into office, forget the promises they made to their constituents and promote their own agendas. That’s what Justice Souter meant when he quoted Benjamin Franklin who in 1787 said that the US Constitution defines “a republic, if you can keep it.”
We all took an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Whether we believe in the democratic ideal behind it or not, our government is the longest-lived republic in the history of the world. Every generation of Americans since the Founding has had individuals, just like us, who have taken that same oath to maintain the government that the Founders created.
Justice Souter pointed out that most people can’t and don’t understand how government should work. “It is a product of civic ignorance.” His concern is that, as Thomas Jefferson said, “An ignorant people cannot remain a free people.” If the people don’t understand where problems come from, they won’t know who or what caused the problems. If the problems become bad enough, one person will step forward and promise to solve them if the people give him or her TOTAL POWER. Our democratic republic will fall, our government will become a dictatorship, and all the blood shed by our brothers and sisters throughout the history of the US will have been in vain.
My point is best summed up by Justice Souter’s final remark. “If something is not done to improve the level of civic knowledge, [the death of our democratic republic] is what you should worry about at night.”
Our Constitution outlines a democratic REPUBLIC. Under this form of government, we elect legislators to vote on our behalf at the Federal, state and local levels. Often, those legislators get into office, forget the promises they made to their constituents and promote their own agendas. That’s what Justice Souter meant when he quoted Benjamin Franklin who in 1787 said that the US Constitution defines “a republic, if you can keep it.”
We all took an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Whether we believe in the democratic ideal behind it or not, our government is the longest-lived republic in the history of the world. Every generation of Americans since the Founding has had individuals, just like us, who have taken that same oath to maintain the government that the Founders created.
Justice Souter pointed out that most people can’t and don’t understand how government should work. “It is a product of civic ignorance.” His concern is that, as Thomas Jefferson said, “An ignorant people cannot remain a free people.” If the people don’t understand where problems come from, they won’t know who or what caused the problems. If the problems become bad enough, one person will step forward and promise to solve them if the people give him or her TOTAL POWER. Our democratic republic will fall, our government will become a dictatorship, and all the blood shed by our brothers and sisters throughout the history of the US will have been in vain.
My point is best summed up by Justice Souter’s final remark. “If something is not done to improve the level of civic knowledge, [the death of our democratic republic] is what you should worry about at night.”
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SPC Jill Drushal, RN, MA
My favorite quote from a Founder - "Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives." - James Madison. He is the only Founder to have kept a written record of the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
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