Dissecting democracy
Re “Inevitable no more,” Opinion, Jan. 8
While I too am worried about the rise in authoritarianism worldwide, I am also alarmed that so many people -- including such major players in U.S. politics as former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright -- do not seem to understand what form of government we have in this country. The founding fathers worked hard to ensure that our system of government was not a democracy but rather a constitutional republic. It was our constitutional guarantees, including our system of checks and balances, that made this country unique -- and continue to make it uniquely successful.
Democracy in the absence of fundamental human rights quickly degenerates into mob rule, as we’ve seen over and over again around the world. Pushing for democracy as some kind of sacred panacea misses the point. At the close of the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked what form of government had been decided on. “A republic, if you can keep it,” responded Franklin. How can we keep it -- or encourage it in the rest of the world -- if we don’t even understand that this is what we have?
Stewart Margolis
Los Angeles
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Our defense of democracy has a tortured and contradictory path, as Albright surely knows. America is hypocritical in its approach. How long would the current regimes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Israel survive without our more than generous subsidies of multiple billions every year? And Iraq is further away from representative elections now than before 2003.
Who will decide the future of governments? Inevitably, as history has shown, the masses will decide with or without American advice. Get used to it.
F. Daniel Gray
Los Angeles