by James Glaser
March 15, 2006

I pledge allegiance to the Flag
Of the United States of America,
And to the Republic for which it stands:
One Nation under God, indivisible,
With Liberty and Justice for all.

I believe than now almost every child in public school says that pledge, if not every day, at least once a week. What most people seem to forget is that we are pledging our allegiance to the Flag and to the Republic.

Here we are running around the world pushing democracy off under the point of a gun, and here at home we are living under a Republic. Here is a quote from the encyclopedia. "The United States of America is a federal republic situated in North America. It is bordered on the north by Canada and to the south by Mexico."

Shame on me, I'm not all that well versed on what the difference is between a republic and a democracy. I should be, and I have said that pledge I guess a thousand times, and maybe it isn't that big of a thing, but I will have to check it out.

Here is the basic information I found about the two. The main thing in a Democracy is that an individual or any minority group of individuals, has no protection from the rule by the majority. Majority vote rules.

While in a Republic, the main thing is that the Majority's power is controlled, and the individual's rights are the most important. Our country started off with this premise: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." That means individual rights over majority rights.

Just to make everything confusing, many things I read said something like this, "The United States is a Constitution-based federal republic with a strong democratic tradition."

So if that doesn't muddle things up, I will fall back to my original question, "Why, if we are a republic, are we pushing democracy on the rest of the world?

George Bush is pushing democracy, and he thinks that is the ticket to world peace, even if we have to kill millions to make every country into a democracy. Iraq is just one country, and we have killed tens of thousands there, and we haven't achieved democracy yet. You multiply the number we killed in Iraq by all the other countries we have yet to work on, and the number of people Bush is ready to kill to get world peace is staggering.

Now in George Bush's world there are "good democracies" and "bad democracies." George figures Iraq and Afghanistan are going to be good ones, but places like Iran, Venezuela, Brazil, and Palestine are bad democracies. If the people in a country don't vote the way Washington wants them to, their democracy becomes "bad," and Washington will do what ever it can to have that country start out with a new form of democracy. A "good" form is where a pro-western candidate wins or at least a candidate who will play ball, like Saddam Hussein did for a couple of decades.

You see even a "good democracy" can turn bad if they don't follow Washington's wishes.

Then we have places like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait. These countries play ball so well with Washington, democracy doesn't sound good for them. They fall into the "Good and Bad" Monarchies. Kings who play ball are good, those that don't are despots. Everyone knows that despots must be removed so that a democracy can take their place.

One thing George Bush seems to forget about this Republic/ Democracy thing, is that our founding fathers gave us a Constitution, and it spells out what out government can do and some of the things it can't. No where does it say we can run around the world making other countries into democracies.

Here is a good quote that I wish George Bush would read. "America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the well wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own."—President John Quincy Adams

We can run around and push any form of government we want to on pitiful third world nations, and that is exactly what George Bush is doing in Afghanistan and Iraq. Some day however that may come back and bite us. Every country has its day, and then they fade. The United States will not always be on top, and we may be told that our Republic or Democracy, what ever you want to call it, is wrong, and some new power will force us to change. You can reap what you sow.

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