by Kerry Thomas
March 11, 2011
America’s Founding Fathers abhorred democracy.
Outside the Constitutional Convention in 1787, a
Mrs. Powel of Philadelphia asked Benjamin Franklin, "Well, Doctor, what
have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" With no hesitation whatsoever,
Franklin responded, "A republic,
if you can keep it."
(This exchange was recorded by Constitution
signer James McHenry in a diary entry that was later reproduced in the 1906 American
Historical Review.)
Section 4 of
Article IV of the U.S. Constitution guarantees to every state in this union a republican form of
government.
The protesters in Madison kept chanting, “This is what democracy looks like!” And they were right.
Democracy is nothing less than mob rule. What we witnessed in Madison was nothing
short of an angry mob, trying to prevent Wisconsin’s duly elected legislators from
representing their constituents.
While they were hiding in Illinois, Wisconsin’s
AWOL Democrat Senators repeated the mantra, “This is what democracy looks like.”
By their absence, Wisconsin’s AWOL Democrat Senators denied their
constituents any representation in the Senate, no matter which side of the
debate they were on. It was not
democratic, nor was it republican.
It was an abdication, a failure to fulfill their
responsibilities as elected officials.
If we are to keep our republic, those who
abdicated their responsibilities as elected officials must be replaced with citizens
who will do the job they are elected to do.