Friendly reminder: The U.S. is a REPRESENTATIVE Democracy, NOT a direct democracy

I keep reading about how angry everyone is over our voting system and I keep wondering....

Do they understand how and why our voting system works?


Study.com

Simply put, a representative democracy is a system of government in which all eligible citizens vote on representatives to pass laws for them. A perfect example is the U.S., where we elect a president and members of the Congress. We also elect local and state officials. All of these elected officials supposedly listen to the populace and do what's best for the nation, state or jurisdiction as a whole.

A representative democracy was originally designed to stop the rule of the majority over the minority.

Washington Post

It is indeed true that Framers sought to “engineer” the Constitution around the problem of political ignorance, thereby diminishing its harmful effects.

They believed that the average person did not have the time to learn the complexity of politics and understand all of its legislation so they create a system that allowed us to elect a representative that could understand and learn that for us.

The Economist

This odd pairing illustrates the problem that direct democracy poses today. First, by circumventing legislatures in the minutiae of governance (chicken coops, for instance), direct democracy overrules, and often undermines, representative democracy. Second, by letting majorities of those voting—who are often a minority of the state's residents—circumscribe the rights of minorities (gays, in this case), direct democracy can threaten individual freedom.

This article gives us a prime and modern example of how a majority rule system can be perverted and it shows us what the representative democracy was designed to stop.

The Constitution is what the government is suppose to be protected for the rights of the individual so that the majority cannot infringe upon said rights.

Its a basic foundation of our government and what our country was built on and I believe there is a manipulation underway to subvert that process through populace movements.

Just look at how Bernie Sanders supporters are demanding socialism and acting out violently. Look at how everyone this cycle believes that we have a direct democracy when in fact we dont.

a reply to: onequestion

The US is a republic last time I checked.

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Whats the difference?

Wash Post

I often hear people argue that the United States is a republic, not a democracy. But that’s a false dichotomy. A common definition of “republic” is, to quote the American Heritage Dictionary, “A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them” — we are that. A common definition of “democracy” is, “Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives” — we are that, too.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Whats the difference?

Wash Post

I often hear people argue that the United States is a republic, not a democracy. But that’s a false dichotomy. A common definition of “republic” is, to quote the American Heritage Dictionary, “A political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them” — we are that. A common definition of “democracy” is, “Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives” — we are that, too.

A republic is supposed to have checks and balances to prevent democratic overrun of policies and laws. A democracy allows the majority to rule directly over the minority. In present day America, it is more like a fascist oligarchy than anything resembling either a democracy or a republic. Extortion is the rule of law and the minority overrule the majority, all of course based in a confidence game relying on fiat currency, or alleged value without real value.

You don't even have a representative democracy, the allegedly "elected" representatives don't represent the people, they represent their funding sources, the money power or the mil/pharma/ind complex.

Cheers - Dave

a reply to: bobs_uruncle

You are completely correct.

a reply to: bobs_uruncle

Regardless of what their doing we still have a representative democracy weather you twist it or not.

It is perverted because we are ignorant and 50% of our population doesnt participate in the process and vote them out.

originally posted by: introvert
a reply to: bobs_uruncle

You are completely correct.

He is in fact not correct.

I already said we dont have a direct democracy we have a representative democracy.

This is part of the problem right here.

House.gov

As per the Constitution, the U.S. House of Representatives makes and passes federal laws. The House is one of Congress’s two chambers (the other is the U.S. Senate), and part of the federal government’s legislative branch. The number of voting representatives in the House is fixed by law at no more than 435, proportionally representing the population of the 50 states.

The house of REPRESENTATIVES.

PLEASE PLEASE my lord.

Once the checks and balances were removed the US became;

The US is an oligarchy, study concludes

The US government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country's citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern Universities has concluded.

The report, entitled Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, used extensive policy data collected from between the years of 1981 and 2002 to empirically determine the state of the US political system.

Source

And they have to obey constitution and the will of the people, as the system is not a corporation, legally, and we're not slaves who elect a king.

The leaders of western nations have committed treason! That is one out of countless other charges that need to be brought against each and every one of them.

a reply to: Unity_99

I agree, our system has been hijacked and our judicial branch of government is not doing their jobs.

We have a representative republic which is a democratic form of government.

a reply to: onequestion

Yes, but I believe one difference between a representative democracy and a Republic is that in a representative democracy they allow the representatives to elect other representatives, outside of the control of the people's vote, including heads of state.

In our system, "heads of state", such as the president, is elected by the people and not the representatives.

I'm just going off the top of my head. Please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.

a reply to: introvert

They elect our president and vote on laws.

a reply to: onequestion

The saddest part of course with Americas Constitutional Republic riding the capitalism dream is that the elected representatives do not actually represent voters any more but the Military / Industrial Complex agenda.

As a consequence, the process is flawed because the party nominees are not usually the best choice to represent liberty and the pursuit of happiness - they represent their parties ideology - maintain perpetual war and bow down to corporate interests over those of the country and her citizens.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: introvert

They elect our president and vote on laws.

That is the difference between a republic and a representative democracy.

Our representatives vote on laws. The people elect heads of state.

a reply to: onequestion

Point of order.

Actually we're a Representative Republic.

"A nation of laws not of men".

Problem is, we're a nation of illegitimate laws, many if not most, are in violation of the Constitution.

A democracy is "two wolves and a sheep voting on whats for dinner" etc. etc.

a reply to: Sublimecraft

I totally agree.

We need an effective executive branch (president) to legislate laws that keep that part of government in check.

That way the judicial branch can actually do its job.

a reply to: introvert

Our representatives vote on laws. The people elect heads of state.

No.
The states elect the president. There is no verbiage in the Constitution which says the people do.

We need to change to a direct democracy because we can see now that money hijacks a representative democracy to easily. And states need to assert their rights more so that it's more like a republic. Two easy fixes..direct democracy and strengthen states rights. It would only take several states banding together to do that.