At the Virginia Ratifying of the U.S. Constitution, Chief Justice James Wilson, one of six people to sign both the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, proudly exclaimed, “The supporters of the Constitution claim the title of being firm friends of the liberty and the rights of mankind …. as the best means of protecting liberty. We, sir, idolize democracy. Those who oppose it have bestowed eulogiums on monarchy … We admire it because we think it a well-regulated democracy. It is recommended to the good people of this country …. to secure their freedom.”
He continues to explain the idea of whether to call America a republic or democracy, stating, “The people at large, retain the supreme power and act either collectively or by representation.”
Throughout our history we have functioned as a representative democracy. Every branch of government derives directly or indirectly from the people. Thomas Jefferson shows this importance with the collaboration of the terms when he explains, “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.”
In 1938, E.B. White described democracy as “the line that forms on the right. It is the ‘don’t’ in ‘don’t shove.’ It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles; it is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time …. To be free … is to feel that you belong to earth … is to feel at home in a democratic framework.” Democracy is the feeling of being part of something bigger within our communities.
In the midst of a Civil War, Abraham Lincoln fervently defended the American experiment as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people by using the terms constitutional republic and representative democracy interchangeably.
However difficult it is to understand American constitutional design, Lincoln pressed, “the rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible.”
Lincoln defined popular government that can guide your understanding of democracy or a republic as “a majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily, with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.”
The Constitution established a representative democracy, a republic, in which voters would elect lawmakers who would represent the people.
Republicans like to talk about freedom, liberty, and justice, while using the American flag and the Bible to disguise their embrace of fascism, contempt for the rule of law, and support for an unrepentant convicted felon and adjudicated rapist.
This is what E.B. White warns us about when he described the fragility of our democracy as something that “can be destroyed by a single zealous man who holds aloft a freedom sign while quietly undermining all of freedom’s cherished institutions.”
America has always managed to preserve democracy because of the focus on the concept of equality before the law and the right to have a say in our government.
We have come to a place where many of you are choosing to politicize the word democracy. If you see the word democracy as something partisan, you are simultaneously at war with both the Constitution and the truth.
The strength of American democracy lies in our capacity to design the future we desire. It does not imply agreement, but it does imply a willingness to defend one another’s right to participate in that democracy.
Claims that we are not a democracy covertly combine principles with minority rule in lieu of popular sovereignty. It is a perversion of our Constitution, not a feature, to allow for long-term minority rule at the federal level.
Every generation is tasked with the preservation and expansion of our democracy. Your support to destroy our system of government and to replace it with one based on minority rule is tragic.
[This was] a view Abraham Lincoln addressed in 1858 as he declared, “I ask you in all soberness, if all these things, if indulged in, if ratified, if confirmed and endorsed, if taught to our children, and repeated to them, do not tend to rub out the sentiment of liberty in the country, and to transform this Government into a government of some other form. Those arguments … are the arguments kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. … Whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent.”
Matthew Douglas
Brooks, GA 30205
My take-away doesn’t come from Mr Douglas’s letter, which I think struggles to make a clear point, but rather once again, the examples of how empty progressive thought is from their replies to conservative comments.
On one hand, posts from BUFF and Fiona give multiple examples of the misdeeds and tragedies of woke / leftist / democrat policies and practices under Harris / Biden. But instead of a thoughtful debate, we get the usual fact-free responses from Jax and Fiction.
Just blame Fox News for anything you don’t like, or throw out “convicted felon” – – a farce brought to us by the democrats’ lawfare campaign and that will be overturned on appeal. As lawyers say, “when the facts are not on your side, pound the table”.
A few more realities: we are a month away from electing a president, yet Kamala has yet to do a press conference, or any type of serious interview. In my view, she is not capable of taking on the most complex leadership job in the world and she doesn’t want to prove it before the election. That, and hiding in the basement worked for Biden to get low-information voters in 2020.
Also, Kamala was the first one pushed out of the 2020 democrat primary, was rated more liberal than socialist Bernie Sanders in the Senate, had the highest disapproval rating as Vice President in 2023 due to her failures as Border Czar, Bidenomics, Afghanistan, etc, and who didn’t get a single primary vote to be the democrat candidate in 2024. She is half of the disastrous last 4 years under Harris / Biden, which only 26% of Americans currently think is on the right track.
That is why progressives can only gaslight and bloviate. The reasons to vote for Trump and Republican candidates are successful experience in 2017 – 2020 up to COVID, and conservative policies that will correct the damage of the last 4 years of Harris / Biden.
Penny believes Fox revisionist history of 45’s term in office. He makes great promises, but delivers little.
Consider: He promised to cut the deficit. He added $8T to it. He promised to build a wall. He only did 458 miles out of 2,000. Most of it was repair or replacement, not new. He promised to make Mexico pay for it which didn’t happen. He promised to unveil a new healthcare plan. It didn’t exist and still is only a “vague conception.” He promised a middle-class tax cut. He cut taxes for the rich. The middle class is paying for it. He said he wouldn’t play golf as President. He made 250 visits to his own golf clubs. It cost taxpayers $150 million. He said he’d increase economic growth by 4%. He didn’t come close. He promised an infrastructure plan. He had none. He promised to hire “the best people.” He fired 3/4 of them and then said they were the worst ever. He promised to bring down the price of prescription drugs. He didn’t. He promised a Hillary lock-up; it didn’t happen. He promised we’d win the trade war with China. We didn’t, and it cost about a quarter million American jobs. He promised his corporate tax cuts would help and benefit workers and that corporations would use that money to invest in American workers. They didn’t, instead, they used that money to buy back stocks. He promised to bring back and revive the coal and steel industries. It never happened – more coal and steel industry jobs were lost during his presidency. I could go on, but cult disciples only entrench their fealty when inconvenient truths are presented.
I recognize that Fox never dares to report the truth to its disciples. Fox had to pay 3/4 of a billion dollars because the “news” station systematically lied to its audience over years about election fraud.
The orange man is temperamentally unfit to hold any elective office. That is much more important than all of his failures the first time around, and that is the only reason really needed to vote against him.
I will give him credit for understanding his constituents. He engineered an insurrection that resulted in the death of an acolyte, and, just as he predicted that he could murder on Fifth Ave. without repercussion, he has otherwise very decent people defending him on these pages of The Citizen.
Truth is stranger than fiction!
I think the letter while vague in it’s direction reminds us of a real American leader’s thoughts on the current situation. Lincoln warned us about leaders who, by spreading lies and division, ‘rub out the sentiment of liberty’ and turn our government into a twisted joke. Trump’s playbook is like a greatest hits of anti-democracy moves: praising murderous dictators like Putin, claiming the election was rigged when he lost and unleashing his mob on the Capitol on Jan 6, putting his fragile ego over the Constitution. Lincoln would see Trump as the perfect example of that ‘same old serpent’—just another wannabe king who’s a threat to the very freedoms this country was built on.
Bless your hearts. Your Trump hate must make you miserable. Let’s try some facts to help you.
First, no politician EVER has delivered on all of their promises. Do you really believe Harris will build 3 million affordable homes? Even Comrade Doug can explain how Congress plays a huge role in outcomes.
Politifact, a liberal advocacy and reporting outlet, subjectively rates each President’s promises vs what actually happened. Their “Biden Promise Tracker” shows 38% of his promises are either “Promises Kept” or “Compromise”, whereas Trump scored 45% on the same Politifact scale.
And telling lies and half-truths about Trump doesn’t change the awful priorities and results of the Biden / Harris administration. As I have corrected Fiction previously, there was no “insurrection” on January 6. It was an awful riot that lasted a couple of hours.
And recently released transcripts of the Pentagon’s investigation show that Trump “gave clear instructions to Pentagon brass days before the Jan. 6 riots to “do whatever it takes” to keep the U.S. Capitol safe, including deploying National Guard or active-duty troops, but top officials did not comply because of political concerns…”. “Bombshell transcripts: Trump urged use of troops to protect Capitol on Jan. 6, but was rebuffed” JustTheNews 9/23/24
Trump gave us all a tax cut, far lower gas prices and inflation, and took illegal immigration to a long-term low (vs Border Czar Harris to a 40+ year high). Housing and food was affordable for far more Americans. Unemployment hit a 50 year low in early 2020. The world was peaceful, with the Abraham Accords bringing Israel to harmony with several of its Arab neighbors.
Harris wants to increase taxes and use our money to pay off others’ student loans and to send it overseas. And now we find out that Biden / Harris have spent billions of Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) funding on illegals, leaving not enough to help citizens through the tragedy of Hurricane Helene.
One last fact: in a poll conducted earlier this year reported by Associated Press, only 24% of Americans believe they are better off than 4 years ago, while 41% said they are worse off under Harris / Biden. We can’t continue the decline with Harris.
Penny – It is clear to see by our printed dialogue that we talk past each other. You believe that 45 will enact more effective strategies than Ms. Harris and focus upon policy differences. I see 45 as morally and temperamentally unfit to hold any leadership position, and he reminds me of that every time he opens his mouth. Like Oswald Chambers says, “The greatest test of a man’s character is his tongue.”
I would not vote for 45 even if I believed in every single policy he promotes because his character is flawed, and he has demonstrated that he has no respect for the Constitution. Why discuss the wonderful arrangement of deck chairs when the ship will sink?
You are not alone given the millions of people who can look beyond his character flaws in order to return the country to a bygone era where the proverbial trains ran on time and white Christian men were the conductors.
I value a more diverse country where every kind of person is accepted.
We just disagree. But isn’t it nice to live in a republic that still allows this disagreement? I wish you well.
I appreciate your trying, Stranger.
I think Jesus the Christ said it best–“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his soul?”
But for cheap gas?!
Fiction – yes, I value competency and results over personality and the amount of melanin in someone’s skin. That’s about all you got right.
I didn’t want to go here, but you claim the moral high ground, yet are willing to overlook the immorality of Harris’s start in politics in her 20s under her lover Willie Brown, the 60 year old married San Francisco mayor who used the California democrat machine to get Harris cushy six-figure public board jobs, and sponsored her political rise as a prosecutor. Was that her only such relationship to get ahead?
Where is the morality in Harris lying repeatedly to us that Joe Biden is “sharp as a tack”, then staging a soft coup to replace him while winning not a single primary vote?
You talk of respect for the Constitution about Trump, yet where are you with Harris disregarding US law to open the border to 10,000,000+ illegals and the deaths of over 100,000 to fentanyl? Or in disregarding a Supreme Court ruling against making taxpayers pay off others’ student loans?
You do know that the Harris / Biden administration was found in court to have “run afoul of the First Amendment by coercing and significantly encouraging the social media platforms to censor disfavored speech.”, don’t you? NPR.com “How much control should a government have over citizens’ social media content?” 9/11/23 Does that also fit with your view of respecting the Constitution?
How do you defend the morality of using billions in Federal Emergency Management funds for illegals, while underfunding what is available for citizens to deal with our current natural disasters?
You show your own lack of morals in your disgusting racist, anti-religion assumption about others’ motivations. The world doesn’t revolve around identity politics, no matter what the woke DEI race-baiters would want us to believe.
Competency and results on behalf of all citizens are what matter in the White House. Harris has shown us over the last 4 years that she has neither to be our next president, as your inability to make even the slightest case on her behalf demonstrates. Cheers.
Penny – You’re really gonna argue “whataboutism” to defend 45’s moral turpitude? Come on, you’re not Trey. You are better than that.
And revisionist history is straight from the argument that slavery wasn’t the cause of the Civil War. You know there is plenty of sworn testimony that 45 was fiddling while the Capitol was being breached. These aren’t debatable points outside of Fox-world.
Why not just admit that 45 hates the same people that you hate. It is parsimonious and honest. Harris stands little chance of being a President in the mold of Washington or Lincoln, but she doesn’t lead with hate. We Americans are more alike than different. We don’t have to be eternally aggrieved.
Fiction – You struggle with reading comprehension, don’t you? Re-read the first two paragraphs. I clearly state what I value in a politician, and I said that I very reluctantly engaged in “whataboutism” only to show the hypocrisy of your blindness to the moral flaws and disastrous results in Harris.
I have also repeatedly urged you and others to focus on past results and future policies in evaluating candidates. We are hiring someone to do a job, not deciding a dinner party guest list.
And I had to laugh at the irony of you assuming that I am motivated by hate. Look up the psychological term of “projection” and you’ll understand why I find you humorous.
I also find humor in your statement that “we don’t have to be eternally aggrieved”, coming from a progressive whose whole modus operandi is to divide us all into demographic and niche grievance-obsessed groups.
There was one brief, but shining, moment in your otherwise tired and repetitive rant. “We Americans are more alike than different”. Brilliant!
Perhaps you do understand how wrong it is to use race for preferences, to prioritize spending our tax dollars on other countries and on millions of illegals over the needs of citizens, and to apply the law based on political beliefs not impartially, etc . . .
Heck, Fiction, you actually want to Make America Great Again! Welcome, brother!
Penny – Thank you for your response. I recognize that we see both history and reality through very different lenses, and thus, risks are measured quite differently. I also realize that you have constructed a world that can explain any deficit as an advantage. I’m glad that works for you.
Every ranking by presidential historians (including the most respected one from C-SPAN) rates 45 in the bottom 5 of all our chief executives. I’ll trust the people who have devoted their professional lives to the study of our country rather than the latest spin. 45 hasn’t earned another attempt at the job.
As always, I wish you well.
Fiction – I guess when you don’t have any substance or logic to guide your vote, you’re down to outsourcing your thinking to a bunch of liberal academics.
If you’re willing to overlook 20%+ inflation, Build Back Better and Bidenomics failures, 10,000,000+ illegals and 100,000+ fentanyl deaths from an Open Border, the Afghanistan pull-out debacle, slow-walking arms for Ukraine and Israel, using up funds meant for natural disasters on illegals, trillions added to the national debt, wasting billions on the Green New Deal, promises of unity but only pushed a divisive partisan agenda, defiance of the Supreme Court to use taxpayers to pay off others’ student loans, weaponization of the justice system, the lies about the greatly diminished mental ability of Biden and his family’s multi-million dollar grift, then yeah, just go with whatever the historians say. Cheers.
Penny – Pay attention. I said that we are talking past each other. You persist in making a case against Biden/Harris’s policies when that is irrelevant. You certainly haven’t seen me try to make a case for them.
The only issue is that 45 is a criminal and tempermentally unfit to be president. He falsely denied his defeat in the 2020 election (and still does) and incited an insurrection to overthrow the Constitutionally elected president. This is only the second time in our nation’s history that the Capitol was assaulted, and the 1st time in over 200 years.
This isn’t a matter of debate. He was impeached for this offense and the majority of Senators held him accountable. Some Republicans like Mitch McConnell did not vote for removal from office because they saw the courts as the place to try the case (and because they were afraid of their constituents). He has been indicted in federal court for this and awaits trial. In the meantime, the bipartisan Congressional special committee clearly demonstrated his culpability for the insurrection with reams of evidence from eyewitnesses.
Just because you won’t believe these facts doesn’t mean they are untrue. When someone burns down the Reichstag, we should have learned not to return them to power.
Historians, most everyone not in Fox world, and all the western democracies know he is unfit and a threat. The fact that he has been adjudicated guilty of sexual assault and defaming his victim would also be sufficient grounds to reject him. His inability to tell the truth is particularly damning as well.
I’m no great fan of Harris, but she has a subterranean bar to clear in this election. We’ve had plenty of ineffective presidents in the last 248 years, and our country has been resilient, but we’ve had only one president who defied the Constitutional transfer of powers.
Everything else pales in comparison.
So revise or deny history if you must, but please stop arguing points that are irrelevant.
Penny states in his last opening, “You don’t have any substance or logic to guide your vote …” Yet it’s clear that you (STF) are citing examples that are driven by ethical and moral principles.
One only has to look to another example of additional moral guidance with more than 100+ former national security officials (GOP) from previous Republican administrations (Reagan, and both Bush admins) and former Republican members of Congress. Here in a letter, they have all concluded that Donald J. Trump is “unfit to serve again as president.”
They go on to endorse the other candidate (Harris) despite not doing so in 2020 (for Biden). The condemnation letter reads in part, “As President he (Trump) promoted daily chaos in government, praised our enemies and undermined our allies, politicized the military and disparaged our veterans, prioritized his personal interest above American interests and betrayed our values, democracy and this country’s founding documents.” Again, these are own-party Republican signatories so moved and accorded to their higher convictions, not policies.
02. It’s not “Trump hate.” It’s more like a rational response to danger signs. Humpty Dumpty has said many things, whether he means them or not. All one has to do is take him at his word. But one really can’t; his word is worthless. Just ask some great American patriots who know, for example: Former Secretary of Defense, General James N. Mattis (USMC Retired); Former Secretary of Homeland Security; General John F. Kelly (USMC Retired); Former National Security Advisor, General H.R. McMaster; Former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark A. Milley. These guys love our nation and were not in it for political gain. Ask them what they think of Humpty Dumpty and his toe lickers.
Amazed at how strong propaganda works on so many people. A convicted felon? Yeah, in a kangaroo court run by democrats.
Wake up America! November 5th will be a day where WE THE PEOPLE will vote for sanity, law and order, closed borders, no men in women sports, abortion rights by each state decision, lower gas prices, lower grocery prices, no sex change operations on illegals and hormone blockers in children, no full term abortion, no dei woke garbage, no NGO’s paying for illegals to come to America, no anti 2nd Amendment, no censoring speech, no arresting political opponents, no rogue courts, no Manchurian candidate put up by establishment, and PRO United States Constitutional Republic!
It’s really sad how the state run propaganda has divided us as a nation.
#Toobigtorig #Trump/Vance2024
At last–a Trump supporter (Fiona66) who doesn’t hide behind a disclaimer (usually, “I wish he wouldn’t insult his opponents and call them juvenile names…”, “I don’t appreciate him being a bully…”, “I agree he is not always admirable…” before they “hold their noses ” and admit to voting for him and Vance.
In a strange way, I admire Fiona. She is at least willing to be honest, with herself and us. And she states in no uncertain terms what kind of country she hopes for. She knows what Trump and Vance are; and she’s all in.
The definition of fascism is, “an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system; an insistence on obedience to a powerful leader.” Please re-read the comment by Fiona. Her vision for our country is frighteningly close to that. Not “Just another Democrat accusing Republicans of being fascists”, BUFFdriver. It is her own manifesto.
It is time for each of us to decide who we truly are. Who we honestly want to be. For myself, God forbid it would ever be Donald Trump.
Hate will not make us great.
Fiona seems amazed “how strong propaganda works on so many people” yet she drinks it through a straw. Her buzz words are ripped right from the pages of the Propaganda-in-Chief himself (Goebels) in early 1930s Germany. Appeal to emotions rather than ideas. Limit ideas to avoid challenges. Use stereotyped phrases. Give only one side to any argument. Control the message.
Continuously criticize your opponents. Pick out a special enemy for specific vilification. Promulgate stereotypes. Use plenty of political party banners in the background. [Sounds like a modern-day Trump rally] Pass laws to marginalize others in society. If you repeat a lie often enough it becomes accepted as truth. Propaganda works best when those who are being manipulated are confident they are acting on their own free will. And my favorite, there is no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals.
As much as I dislike it, I’m only voting for Democratic Party candidates and no incumbents in non-party affiliations. Too many people who call themselves Republicans bow to Humpty Dumpty. I don’t trust them.
My Republican Party left the forum years ago. If an ethical and somewhat conservative political party takes root, I’ll gladly support it. If not, color me progressive, liberal, and occasionally reactionary.
It seems our Vice President is blamed for all our President’s differences with Humpty Dumpty and Humpty Dumty’s toe lickers. But, what is one to expect? Toe lickers disregard civics or are just ignorant. With some discretion granted by our Constitution and Congress, the President is charged to execute the laws passed by Congress, not make up his/her own.
Thanks for this Matthew Douglas! So refreshing to see a PTC resident call out the hypocrisy of “patriots” who say they love liberty but are supporting a would-be fascist and convicted felon.
And thank you, BUFF, for providing your own illustration of it.
Also, for an interesting take on it, look at Suzanne Sports’ letter published today, too.
Yep, you sir Matthew Douglas are the same old serpent. Just another Democrat accusing Republicans of being fascists.
The republicans embrace freedom of speech, open mindedness and pursue economic prosperity for all. Sounds pretty fascist.
I can already see the replies to my post. Keep in mind if one says there are only two genders assigned at birth, the democrats seek to swiftly cancel that person. Think of all the conservative voices that try to hold speaking events on college campuses that are met with brutal and sometimes violent student rebuttal. Can’t have a different opinion than the ultra-left! It’s the democrats that want to keep America’s poor ever dependent on the government welfare system. It’s the democrats that want to import millions of votes from the southern boarder to ensure the Democrat Party will forever remain in power and this country becomes a single party political system.
It’s the democrats that are fascists Mr. Douglas. Oops I assumed your gender, time for the anti-freedom of ideas/anti-freedom of speech democrats to come haul me away!
Keep watching Fox News Buff. It is an interesting to hear sound bite defenses of simplistic thinking when contemplation is required. Thankfully, the majority of the American voting public knows better.