America's "Founding Fathers:" definitely anti-tyranny...but also anti-democratic?

Question

--this is NOT a homework question, by the way!--

In discussing democracy, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, federalism, states' rights, etc., with a (libertarian) friend, she stated that democracy was not the point of The Declaration of Independence nor the subsequent Constitution, etc. I know that there had been talk of making G. Washington a king and that slaves were counted as only 5/9 of a human being and that women couldn't vote. So: what are YOUR thoughts?

Answer 1

We are not a Democracy as the last poster already pointed out. We are a Republic that is modeled after the British Parlimentary system. I think that the point of the Declaration of Indipendence was to affirm that people had "unalienable rights" that could not be taken away nor oppressed. They claimed that these natural rights were oppressed under British rule and declared indipendence based on the idea that when governments do not represent the ideals of the people that a new government should be formed that will protect the rights of the people. It was very much based on the work of People such as John Locke and Thomas Paine.

Answer 2

As SpotsB4myeyes said true democracy is mob rule, that being said I would like to point out that our system of government has fallen far from the original intention.

Lets start with the name of our country, "The United States of America". If you dissect that name you end up with two essential parts to how the country is supposed to function. United meaning that the states work together, but fact that the different areas are referred to as "States" rather then some other term i.e. proveniences, territories ect.

A State is a political association with effective sovereignty over a geographic area, a more specific definition "State refers to the set of governing institutions that has sovereignty over a definite territory and population.".

With definitions considered each and every "state" within our country was originally supposed to have sovereignty within its borders. Due to the ability of the government to pull funding form a state if the state does something it doesn't like states have lost a lot of their power.

Considering all that I believe our government was intended and is as close to "perfect" democracy as possible while still providing a stable government system.

Answer 3

Yes.And that is precisely why we were the greatest nation on earth,until degenerating into a democracy,and in the past few decades communism.In fact,there's speeches in the confressional records that state 45 communist planks,and how we absorbed them through gradualism via the godless UN and foreign trade treaties.Incidentally,it is a worn out subversive Socialist tactic to point out a couple of flaws from over 2 centuries ago.Those polices were not unique to this nation.http://www.stopthenorthamericanunion.com...                                                                            http://www.newswithviews.com/Hayes/giann...

Answer 4

Your timeline is a little askew, but not to put too a fine point on it:  pure democracy is mob rule, we have a representative republic.  

It isn't perfect but as long as humans are involved in the process, it is likely to remain the best system on the planet.