Have you heard? The Constitution is anti-democratic.

This springs from the people who scream we are a democratic form of government, who think nothing of stealing more of your money through higher taxes or making you pay off someone else’s debt.  In fact, we were taught in grade school that we are a democratic form of government.  And everyone mindlessly repeats that false mantra, until it is so ingrained that when the nation finally starts to wake up to reality, we feel the worst hangover.

In fact, the complaint about the Constitution being anti-democratic is true.  The Constitution does not mention the term “democracy.”  It does allow for a democratic vote every two years.  We are so brainwashed that we call our form of government democracy without thinking.  And now the power-mad are trying the next big step to diminish the Constitution, because this document stands between them and ultimate power.

Confused yet?  Let us look at a different angle.  The Constitution does allow one person, one vote, and that is called democracy.  However, the form of our guiding documents are so much deeper and more complex than this simple term.  People get stuck at the most basic level and look no farther.

The Constitution is anti-democratic because America’s founding documents’ sole purpose is to preserve the sanctity of the individual.  The Constitution seeks to prevent the ultimate abuse by democracy: that the majority of 51% will control the minority of 49%.  In the democratic view of the nation, the majority should issue edicts that everyone follows, no matter the effect on the individual. 

In a constitutional republic, the tyranny of the majority is held in check in many profound ways.  Among them is separation of powers into legislative, judicial, and administrative roles, with distinct powers and limits on those powers.  Another is the bicameral congress, a house, and a senate.  A third is the Electoral College, which serves to prevent the larger states from overpowering the less populated states.  The fourth is states’ rights, further distributing power from the central government.  In the beginning, the only people allowed to vote were landowners, because the founders thought they had a personal stake in understanding their role as self-governing.

A republic is so much more than a democracy. 

The more we study their philosophy and the documents that begat our nation, the more we can appreciate the profound genius of our founders.  They created the Declaration of Independence to articulate the rights and responsibility of the citizen and thereby recognized the divine concept of an autonomous individual culminating in the inalienable right to life, liberty, and ownership of property.  These rights are bestowed on an individual, not a mob nor a nation.  They accrue to each person, unfettered by man-made intervention.  These rights are not man-made and cannot be taken away by man.

Then the founding philosophers of our nation created the Constitution and Bill of Rights (amendments) to restrict any one group from threatening another’s individual liberty as defined in the Declaration.  The Constitution goes to great lengths to do one thing: restrict the government, or any powerful manipulator, from abusing the power inherent therein.  Democracy devolves into the tyranny of the masses using abuse of the government to retain their ill-gotten status.

A republic is a concept whereby the citizen rules himself.  The Constitution defines the rule of law and limits the power of a government.  Our form of governance is a constitutional republic, not a democracy.  Even though we have democratic elements in our founding documents, these elements refer to a method of voting every two years and not to the concept of freedom.  At its worst, a democracy devolves into the rule of the majority over the minority.  That concept is antithetical to individual liberty. 

One doubts that either candidate today, or any party, understands the lesson in the previous paragraphs.  One might be better, but neither is perfect.  And this is the third stroke of genius our founders left us: they instilled in our founding documents the culmination of thousands of years of philosophical thinking into this moment.  They articulated the real concept of the individual.  Ergo, the only antidote to abuse of power is the citizen, the individual, who is informed and involved in his own governance.  Today, as in all ages, this means control and balance of power to restrict government’s malevolent incursion into our individual liberty.  Knowledge is power and liberty.  Principled knowledge is wisdom.

Jay Davidson is founder and CEO of a commercial bank.  He is a student of the Austrian School of Economics and a dedicated capitalist.  He believes that there is a direct connection joining individual right and responsibility, our Constitution, capitalism, and the intent of our Creator.

Image via Pxfuel.