by Robert M. Traxler

Are we a democracy or a republic? A good question; the word democracy does not appear in our Constitution or in the Declaration of Independence. A former columnist in this esteemed publication, Ranger Rick, pointed out this fact many years ago, and he was of course correct.

The argument can be made we are a representative democracy, but we cannot call ourselves a democracy. As Ranger Rick wrote, a democracy is chaos; the people can just vote themselves money, and whatever is popular at the time will become law. 

In a republic the people elect representatives and senators who read and study proposed laws and regulations, weigh them as to their good for all the nation, and working within our Constitution vote for or against a proposed bill. In a true democracy the east, gulf and west coast states with most of the population would oppress the minority, folks who refer to those of you reading this as being in “flyover country,” the area they fly over to get from one coast to the other.

The beauty of our form of government is that the tyranny of the majority does not always rule; the electoral college keeps things to some extent equal for large states and small states. If a person wishes to see our Constitution relegated to the ash heap of history, to open the door to socialism, a form of government that does not work and has never worked over time, certainly not as long as our republic, will come to pass. 

The progressive movement wishes to socialize our form of government; we need to ask them if they can read. Socialism never works, nor will it ever work over time. Tried hundreds of thousands of times in small instances, from communes of a few to the largest nation in the world, it failed, in the process murdering more than 60 million people. The Russian Federation and the Chinese government have dropped the socialist economic system in favor of limited capitalism, and both nations are thriving compared to the past. Even in the Russian Federation, with the sanctions imposed by our President when they invaded the Ukraine, GDP has grown at a rate of 3.4%, after our government told us it would be reduced by 2.5% due to the sanctions.

Capitalism, even limited capitalism, works; socialism fails, always. If the sanctions in place for over two years worked, why did President Putin win the last election (March 2024) by nearly 88%, up from 77% in the election before that one?

Our friends in the media are deaf and dumb about the sanctions because it is an embarrassing failure for our current government. The death of opposition leader Aleksei Navalny while in a Russian prison and President Biden telling us he was increasing sanctions on Russia, sanctions that will bring President Putin to his knees as he stated about the last two rounds of sanctions, do nothing. The Russian GDP is growing faster than ours. Folks, you can’t make this stuff up. It is a diplomatic disaster that the media is ignoring to prop up President Biden and the Democrats.  

The folks who advocate for socialism will tell us the Constitution is a parchment document, a scrap of paper with no authority. The best example is the striking down of Roe v Wade in the Dobbs decision. Even the socialist icon the late Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said many times that the Roe v Wade decision was not constitutional, and if ever revisited would be struck down.

In order to socialize our nation, the Bill of Rights must be ignored. Our central government cannot be the all-knowing all powerful fair referee of every aspect of our existence with the Bill of Rights in force.

Roe v Wade could be made nationwide law with a constitutional amendment; the votes are available, with some 70% of Americans wanting to see some form of legal abortion. The socialist movement will not do it as it would prove that the Constitution works, something not acceptable to the socialists. 

If we are even allowed by the politically correct media to question our current government, we should ask what ever happened to the Russian sanctions, and why did President Putin win the last election by a landslide if sanctions are working? Of course, the cancel culture will not allow the question. My opinion.