Government 101 – You Gotta Be Kidding Me

I learned in junior high about the government organization in the United States. We were corrected immediately and told we do not live in a true democracy. There never has been a true democracy outside of ancient Greece. We live in a Democratic Republic. There were numerous reasons for this and most of them good. If we lived in a true democracy small states would become insignificant in an election. a 51% majority could dominate 49% of the population.

To make things more equal and keep a measure of state sovereignty our government was organized with checks and balances that would not exist in a true democracy. We elect representatives that then go to the different branches of government and represent their constituents. We have functioned like this for over 200 years.

Now one presidential candidate is carping about the results of a Colorado primary. He said we are a democracy aren’t we. Our teacher in government 101 made it clear this was not true. Are there people that really think that all of a sudden magically we become a democracy? I would say these people have not studied the history or government. It’s sad that one of our presidential candidates has not grasped this basic back about our government.

Also what makes it worse is his followers are threatening violence against representatives that don’t support him. Bugs Bunny would say “what a maroon”.

What’s even worse is that the primary system is not dictated by the federal government. Each state is allowed to establish their own procedure to produce their representative. Some states are set up as all or nothing. Some are proportional. It seems one major candidate has not grasped the very procedure he is trying to use to get elected. All I can say is sad, sad!
It seems many people are unaware that the purpose of the party nominations is not to get a popularity contest for that party but to nominate someone who has a chance of winning the national election. Now I read that the candidate in question “hopes there is no violence”. He really should condemn the thought of violence. By “hoping” what he is really saying is go ahead and create a climate of intimidation that works for me! This is going from sad scary!