It is said that, in a constitutional republic wisdom is not necessary to be a representative
of the people.

However, to be a true representative of the people, one ought to listen to the people, and
represent the authentic will of the people. If a representative does not express, reflect, and
enact the will of the people, then that representative does not represent the people. A
representative needs to know the difference between the general will of the people -- the
common good, the public interest -- and the particular interests of individuals and of
various partisan groups. Making such a distinction is what constitutes leadership in a
true democracy.





If every person, as a citizen, ought to have a right to vote, then every citizen also ought
to have a right to productive work, and a right to own personal property. Unemployment
is evidence that there is no genuine right to productive work. Pauperism and poverty is
evidence that there is no genuine right to possess personal property.





If there are no minimal welfare rights, then there is no genuine right to life, liberty, or the
pursuit of happiness.





If we had a good system, a truly successful constitutional republic, then the people of
Iraq would want to copy our constitutional system, the people of Iraq would want very
much to emulate our republic.  We would not feel a need to make war in order to impose
our system of government on Iraq.





There are those who favor democracy, and who will say that the voice of the people is
the voice of God. In truth, the voice of the people is the voice of common sense, the voice
of collective judgment, the voice of consensus.

The people have been called many things by many writers. According to Edmund Burke,
the people are "the great unwashed". In the opinion of Thomas Browne, the people are
"that numerous piece of monstrosity". Robert Buchanan wrote of the people that they are
"the vulgar popular cattle".  Francesco Guicciardini called the people, "a monster full of
confusion and mistake'. Niccolo Machiavelli thought of the people as "a wild beast".
Juvenal described the people as "the venal herd". And, Suetonius described the people
as "a venal pack". According to Marcus Aurelius, the people are "little dogs biting one
another".

How much of this misanthropy comes from sadness and despair, and how much from
snobbish pride?  How much of human stupidity and sluggishness is because of the
cultural environment people have been nurtured in, a spiritual climate that has been
created by a long succession of brutal and crooked élites? If the people have been treated
like a criminal and vulgar mass, then it is little wonder that the people have become a sort
of mass of perdition. Of course, it is a very convenient and comfortable image of the people
to have for those who possess and desire tyrannical power over the people. If you want
and have authoritarian power to rule over the people, then you will have to have a very
pessimistic and misanthropic opinion of the people. After all, without your supremacy and
your sovereignty the people will plunge themselves into chaos, and will perish.

In my opinion, the ruling élites, the aristocrats, the nobility, the oligarchs, the monarchs,
and the autocrats, every one of them, constitute a long and bloody succession of cruel,
vicious and vulgar monstrosities. The entire line of despots and aristocrats is but a
monster full of evil and error. Dictators are but a venal pack of biting wolves; and every
ruling class has been but a various and venal herd of pompous cattle and supercilious
sheep.

According to Heinrich Heine, the people are "the only righteous source of power".





Every republican form of government thus far has been established and secured by and
through power.  Reasons are always being given, but power has always been taken.
In the words of William Marcy Tweed ("Boss Tweed"): "The way to have power is to take it."





Every existing republican government is organized for the direct and distinct purpose of
formalizing and legalizing the wealthy minority's exploitation of the working majority.

However, there is nothing wrong with republicanism that cannot be fixed and improved
by what is right about republicanism. And, what is right with republicanism are the ideas
and ideals of liberty and justice, of democracy and of socialism. What is workable and
viable for a doable and durable democracy is local self-government, community self-
determination.





"It is absurd to divide people into good or bad.  People are either charming or tedious."
-- Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde