Spring Break
Letters to the Editor
Issue date: 6/4/08 Section: Forum
Response to editorial
U.S. is not a democracy
This is a response to the editorial in the June 3 Barometer titled "No longer a democracy?"
The United States isn't a democracy, hasn't been for a long time if ever, and never will as long as I have breath in my body and bullets for my AK-47. Our country was modeled after the republic of the Roman empire. Their form of government served them well for a long time. It is in the pledge of allegiance too. Does "and to the republic for which it stands" ring a bell? If you consider what a republic is and how it works, there shouldn't be any confusion. Now to the way things ought or not be, since you're probably thinking, "Well, it should be a democracy." It ought not be "majority rules." "Majority rules" and "democracy" are just euphemisms for "mob rule."
Those are cool if you don't care about liberty and freedom and want to screw over minorities. Benjamin Franklin said that democracy is like two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for lunch and that liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. I hope that clears up your confusion. If not, I could be persuaded to write a series of columns about interesting history and politics in our country, their impact on the present, and the true problems behind the mere symptoms that people believe are problems. For example, take your broken political party confusion. Political parties ought not exist in the first place. When George Washington left office he cautioned against political parties and foreign entanglements. If people listened to him, we wouldn't have screwed the pooch in Vietnam, Korea or Iraq among other things.
Bill Brooks
graduate student, chemical engineering
Response to editorial
Easy to criticize, harder to construct
Your editorial was unfair to the Democratic National Committee's ruling on the Michigan/Florida debacle. Your editorial made it clear how important this process is, how vital the right to vote. Clearly such a process needs rules, and the DNC had instituted such rules as they saw fit; it was both their prerogative and obligation.
U.S. is not a democracy
This is a response to the editorial in the June 3 Barometer titled "No longer a democracy?"
The United States isn't a democracy, hasn't been for a long time if ever, and never will as long as I have breath in my body and bullets for my AK-47. Our country was modeled after the republic of the Roman empire. Their form of government served them well for a long time. It is in the pledge of allegiance too. Does "and to the republic for which it stands" ring a bell? If you consider what a republic is and how it works, there shouldn't be any confusion. Now to the way things ought or not be, since you're probably thinking, "Well, it should be a democracy." It ought not be "majority rules." "Majority rules" and "democracy" are just euphemisms for "mob rule."
Those are cool if you don't care about liberty and freedom and want to screw over minorities. Benjamin Franklin said that democracy is like two wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for lunch and that liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote. I hope that clears up your confusion. If not, I could be persuaded to write a series of columns about interesting history and politics in our country, their impact on the present, and the true problems behind the mere symptoms that people believe are problems. For example, take your broken political party confusion. Political parties ought not exist in the first place. When George Washington left office he cautioned against political parties and foreign entanglements. If people listened to him, we wouldn't have screwed the pooch in Vietnam, Korea or Iraq among other things.
Bill Brooks
graduate student, chemical engineering
Response to editorial
Easy to criticize, harder to construct
Your editorial was unfair to the Democratic National Committee's ruling on the Michigan/Florida debacle. Your editorial made it clear how important this process is, how vital the right to vote. Clearly such a process needs rules, and the DNC had instituted such rules as they saw fit; it was both their prerogative and obligation.
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