Our Republic

I assert that it is not meaningless to distinguish American government as a republic, because the common form of government is not a republic, but a parliament; there being very important and profound distinctions between the two. Now the claim originally cited would be true if the implied word "just" were inserted as follows: "America is a republic, not JUST a democracy." But why is a republic so different from a parliament, that America finds herself so unique from the traditional political mechanisms of Europe and Japan? What other country in the world has a republican president, like America? The answers to these questions begin us on the journey of discovering the truths of political freedom and government. They also illuminate the deep psychological need of Americans to distinguish the republican form of their government from the rest of the world; on that note, observe that Iraq adopted the parliamentary and not republican form of democracy, as has been the legacy of the UN (Europe) for all previous government organizations/establishments.

Now I must add that any claim of democracy is removed from the idea of rule by the people. In statistics, numbers have no meaning, but are only representations of observations with respect to a weighted basis. Technically, every number must move beyond the object it is measuring and declare the weighted standard with respect to which it has been measured. Similarly, (and this is a crucial point) the rule of the people is always with respect to something (the simplest being my view for democracy, and being unpracticed since the beginning of time). The senate brings the loosely represented rule of the people (who voted) with respect to their division among the fifty states, while the House brings the loosely represented rule of the people with respect to those who vote. Loosely represented because the representatives are granted power to disregard the will of the people at their every whim and fancy; personally, I would not prefer to use the term "representation" when speaking of any existing political process, including America's. Then there is the parliament's party-based, proportionally allocated (by electoral support) system for claiming the democratic, rule of the people. Nevertheless, I wish to make it clear that I am not advocating the rule of the people, but the rule of the individuals in equality.

BTW, just as a side note, America was formed as a confederation, not a federation, and without the limitations of the Bill of Rights (for a substantial period of time). The only reason she was limited was because she was young. Limited in powers, not authority, as an empty book is limited in content, not in ink supplies; it was just a matter of time before the pages were filled, and the weight began to crush the table (her citizens which support her).