A Constitutional Republic vs a Constitutional Democracy?

Dr. Greg J. Dixon

Three times in Hillary Clinton's concession speech to Donald Trump she mentioned that America is a Constitutional Democracy, and yet if that was true she would be President of the United States today and not Donald J. Trump.  This is one of the greatest examples that we could ever have of the wisdom of our founding fathers in establishing our nation as a Constitutional Republic rather than a Democracy.

Some of the men that came to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 had come so prepared in advance, men like Madison, as an example, who had studied every form of government known to man down through the ages. They were convinced that they did not want a Parliamentary form of government where the Chief Executive derives his authority from the legislature.  And obviously, they did not want a Monarchy, they had just fought a war to defeat that system.  Neither did they want a democracy.  They finally settled on a Constitutional Republic. 

Just a brief look at the definition of the two words will suffice to see why these great men established a Republic rather than a Democracy.

Republic – Rule of law - Order

A republic is a form of government or country in which power resides in elected individuals representing the citizen body and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. In modern times, the definition of a republic is commonly limited to a government which excludes a monarch.

Democracy – Rule of majority - Chaos

A democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives

In a Republic, there is the idea of the rule of law which results in order.  The President and all other public servants, not officials, take an oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  Notice that it is the Constitution, not the nation that he takes the oath to defend.  Because, if the Constitution is destroyed, the nation will have been destroyed.

In a democracy, which is majority rule, and eventually mob rule or mobocracy.  In the end, it is whoever can shout the loudest.  We are seeing this play out before our eyes now, in the mobs hitting the streets because they are not satisfied with the results of the recent election.  Most of them have no idea as to why they are there, they have been whipped up by emotion to believe a lie.  If they can get a big enough mob and produce enough violence and chaos they can topple governments.

We see behind this the spirit of rebellion.  This is where the idea that the voice of the people is the voice of god came from.  It has been the spirit behind every rebellion down through the ages.    

This was the genius of the Electoral College.  Even though Mrs. Clinton received the highest count in the popular vote, Trump received the most Electoral Votes 279-228 which is considered a landslide.  This happened between Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2000.  And it has happened before in other presidential elections.  To further show that America is a Republic we have the example of the Electoral College in the following explanation.

The Electoral College is a process, not a place. The founding fathers established it in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Electoral College process consists of the selection of the electors, the meeting of the electors where they vote for President and Vice President, and the counting of the electoral votes by Congress.

The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your state's entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators. (From archives of government)

The purpose behind the Electoral College, by our Founders, was to keep the large populated states from controlling the agricultural states that have less population.  Once again we see the genius of our Founders in building into the Constitution the separation of powers between large and small states.  We saw it work in the present election.  California and New York, with their large population base were not able to control the election.

According to the last count the popular vote for Trump and Clinton is very close, but she has a small lead. Based on that, Hillary would be President today, but based on the Electoral College, Donald J. Trump is President by a landslide.  Thank God for the wisdom of the founding fathers of this Constitutional Republic.