REPUBLICANISM AND SOVEREIGNTY TO UNDERSTAND AMERICA AND AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES one must understand these two ideas, Republicanism and Sovereignty, for they were what America was founded on. And, as I dig into what these words meant to our founding fathers, WOW, have we gone astray. Thomas Jefferson said, regarding Republicanism: ...a government by its citizens in mass, acting directly and personally, according to rules established by the majority; and that every other government is more or less republican, in proportion as it has in its composition more or less of this ingredient of the direct action of the citizens. Such a government is evidently restrained to very narrow limits of space and population. I doubt if it would be practicable beyond the extent of a New England township. The first shade from this pure element, which, like that of pure vital air, cannot sustain life of itself, would be where the powers of the government, being divided, should be exercised each by representatives chosen...for such short terms as should render secure the duty of expressing the will of their constituents. This I should consider as the nearest approach to a pure republic, which is practicable on a large scale of country or population ... we may say with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less republican as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition; and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the evils flowing from the duperies of the people, are less injurious than those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of government which has in it the most of this ingredient.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 08:44:13 +0000
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