What is in a word?…
For the last three years, I’ve been hearing some people claim, “America is NOT a democracy. It is a Republic!” Please, if you can help me understand this rhetoric, I’d be very grateful. I do know that The Heritage Foundation subscribes to this idea. I read the article, written by Bernard Dobski, PhD in the summer of 2020, that probably sparked this line of reasoning.
Aside from being a very scholarly piece that would be difficult for most college graduates to fully grasp (including me), it essentially undercuts the idea that American Citizens can live together with a respectful sense of equality. In this essay it sounds like things have to stay out of balance to be in compliance with what the original writers of the Constitution thought prudent. Reading his piece is like untying a Gorgon Knot, unless you’re already convinced about his premise. “Hold back those liberal hooligans that want everyone to be free! Those rampant Progressives who talk about E-Q-U-I-T-Y!”. I can almost hear the spit coming from some mouths because those SIX letters have become more vial than some words that only have FOUR letters (You know the ones: The D-word and the F-word, and the SH-word. OR my least fave, the dreaded C-word).
Wow! I didn’t mean to go THAT far!
Most of the time, I’m pretty much a simpleton. I like sticking with my ABC’s sometimes. You know, like the basic stuff we were taught when I went to school back in the age of the dinosaurs when our (democratically elected) Republic was MUCH younger. So, I got a crazy and freakishly simple idea: What would Noah Webster have to say on this subject? So, I turned to the Dictionary, the great arbitor of many debates, especially in a game of Scrabble!
Webster says “DEMOCRACY IS…1-A) Government by the people especially : rule of the majority. 1-B) A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.
His original dictionary, published in 1828 says this:
DEMOCRACY, noun [Gr. People, and to possess, to govern.] Government by the people; a form of government, in which the supreme power is lodged in the hands of the people collectively, or in which the people exercise the powers of legislation. Such was the government of Athens.
That sounds pretty straight-forward. But what does Webster have to say about the word republic?
Webster says, “REPUBLIC IS…1-A.1) A government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president. 1-A.2) A political unit (such as a nation) having such a form of government. 1-B) A government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law, and 1-C) A political unit (such as a nation) having such a form of government
And here is the 1828 dictionary’s definition of REPUBLIC…
REPUB'LIC, noun [Latin respublica; res and publica; public affairs.] 1. A commonwealth; a state in which the exercise of the sovereign power is lodged in representatives elected by the people. In modern usage, it differs from a democracy or democratic state, in which the people exercise the powers of sovereignty in person. Yet the democracies of Greece are often called republics. 2. Common interest; the public. [Not in use.] 3. Republic of letters, the collective body of learned men.
So, after reading this, what do you think? Who IS entitled to vote? AND What IS in a word? I’d really like to know! PLEASE CONTACT ME VIA THE CONTACT PAGE! GIVE ME YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS BIT OF WRITING. BZSMITH.COM/CONTACT
JOIN ME IN THANKING THESE SPONSORS OF THE “PEBBLES IN A POND: THE RIPPLING EFFECT OF DEMOCRACY” PROJECT…
Tuolumne County Arts California Arts Council United Way of Merced County Sonora Area Foundation
Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Mewuks Indians of California
