Something Else
Not a Democracy...not a Republic...then what?
Consider the possibilities from Occasional Guest Scribbler, Brad Smith’s recent FB post…
One of the books I'm working my way through right now is "The Federalist Papers", it's not only an argument for Federalism, it's one of America's first major works of philosophy.
This isn't the first time I've read it, but it's the Federalist Papers. It's not only an argument for Federalism but also the first time I've read it with these eyes. I have to say, I'm not as impressed by their arguments as I once was. I wasn't convinced the first time I read it years ago, but I was at least on the fence. Now I'm fairly certain they got it wrong, 95% sure, anyway. And it's not so much that the anti-federalists were right, just that the Federalists didn't prove their points either.
Both the Federalists and Anti-Federalists were in favor of taming a beast that couldn't be tamed, but if one was closer to being correct, I'd have to go with the Anti-Federalists.
Clearly, the Federalists knew how hard it would be to keep a powerful central government from going bonkers with corruption. They wrote the Federalist Papers to help people overcome their fears. They bombarded the papers with these essays, so much so that people were sick of hearing about them.
The Federalists and the Anti-Federalists warned us about the dangers of a central government because they knew it would be damn near impossible to keep from falling into corruption. But doesn't that kind of tell you that they should have known better and that maybe they All did?
Reading this book again, with older eyes, makes me think that maybe they knew fully well they were being naive or speaking to an audience they hoped was. They seemed to be hoping for the best but secretly expecting the worst, as if they couldn't come up with a better solution and knew they had no way to bring about a monarchy the people would accept. (italics mine). Lacking a more perfect solution it was damn the torpedoes full steam ahead.
Consider that italicized sentence. With 20-20 years of hindsight on world history plus the 248 years of the USA, what government platform, format, or template might the Founding Dads have offered instead of the ‘republic’ Ben Franklin said they did…?
BW
It's a government: a coercive civil authority, a monopoly-violence institution. There's no form of it that will be good. The only good is if good-hearted people push back against intrusions. Otherwise, it's all tyranny at varying speeds of travel.
I agree with the author and the comment of DCS. Gary Barnett writes about the evil of government, any government, on his substack.
I think the only escape from the State is death and even then the State taxes the corpse and demands papers from it.