OpenGov - Open Government Brainstorm

Obama seems to be a statist - a believer in big government politicians controlling much of the life of average USA citizens - so this idea, while a good one, is not likely to gain much effort by President Obama or his staff.

Great Idea, but it will get trash-canned.

Big government is the cornerstone of controlling people. Big government takes from those who have and gives to those who don't -- in order to buy votes so Big government leaders stay in power.

I think her idea is good, and whether it is canned or not. It is the truth. The Gov't does not run the people. When this happens, the nation will come apart. The Gov't was already too big and now it is just bigger with more debt. I would like to see President Obama abide with smaller government, follow the constitution of America not a government that will try to oppress the people of the United States.

Thomas Jefferson said, "In matters of power let no more be heard of the confidence in man but bind them down from mischief by the chains of the constitution."

So far, Americans have been real good at ignoring what the Constitution said and have let their elected do whatever they pretty much wanted to do. If we can restore the Republic and Constitution it will require what Jefferson wanted. BINDING them, and ourselves, to the Constitution.

Can this be done? Yes, but probably not without blood shed. I've been predicting this blood shed since 1968. A colleague and I met a sophisticated attorney in Denver, Colorado in that same year who was practicing in one of the towers on 17th Street who also predicted our coming to blood shed.

Most of the readers here will think that's not possible. Just do a Google search for "survival realty" and take a long look at what people are saying on message boards about being "cocked and loaded." Also realize that since the beginning of this year that more guns and ammunition has been LEGALLY sold to outfit the two largest standing armies of the world, China and India! WHAT do you suppose all that fire power has been purchased for in America? Wake up!

You who are so hot on the 1st Amendment please tell me where you can petition the government for redress of grievances? NO HOT AIR. Tell me how you have done it.

The Republic is gone. You cannot save it. It was finished quite some time ago. While it could be restored, here appears to be no way to legally do so, and so our friends with all the guns think it can only be restored by blood.

Another quote from our forefather, Jefferson is in order: "What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

By the way, I escaped America long ago, and I do not own a firearm. So, I will be in no wars, but I can tell you that there will absolutely be one because there is no way for the Constitution to be saved. It's as simple as 2 + X = 4. The Republic is gone and with it went the mechanism to save it. Ergo, civil war. God help me if I haven't seen this right since 1968.

Democracy Versus Republic

These succinct definitions of what is Democracy and what is a Republic was produced by the US Army in 1928, These definitions have been quietly withdrawn since, soon after.

Democracy:

A government of the masses.

Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of "direct" expression.

Results in mobocracy.

Attitude toward property is comunistic-negating property rights.

Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate. whether it be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences.

Results in demagogism license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.

Democracy is the "direct" rule of the people and has been repeatedly tried without success.

A certain Professor Alexander Fraser Tytler, nearly two centuries ago, had this to say about Democracy: " A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a Dictatorship."

A democracy is majority rule and is destructive of liberty because there is no law to prevent the majority from trampling on individual rights. Whatever the majority says goes! A lynch mob is an example of pure democracy in action. There is only one dissenting vote, and that is cast by the person at the end of the rope.

Republic:

Authority is derived through the election by the people of public officials best fitted to represent them.

Attitude toward property is respect for laws and individual rights, and a sensible economic procedure.

Attitude toward law is the administration of justice in accord with fixed principles and established evidence, with a strict regard to consequences.

A greater number of citizens and extent of territory may be brought within its compass.

Avoids the dangerous extreme of either tyranny or mobocracy. Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment, and progress.

Is the "standard form" of government throughout the world.

A republic is a form of government under a constitution which provides for the election of:

an executive and

a legislative body, who working together in a representative capacity, have all the power of appointment, all power of legislation all power to raise revenue and appropriate expenditures, and are required to create

a judiciary to pass upon the justice and legality of their governmental acts and to recognize

certain inherent individual rights.

Take away any one or more of those four elements and you are drifting into autocracy. Add one or more to those four elements and you are drifting into democracy.

Our Constitutional fathers, familiar with the strength and weakness of both autocracy and democracy, with fixed principles definitely in mind, defined a representative republican form of government. They "made a very marked distinction between a republic and a democracy and said repeatedly and emphatically that they had founded a republic."

A republic is a government of law under a Constitution. The Constitution holds the government in check and prevents the majority (acting through their government) from violating the rights of the individual. Under this system of government a lynch mob is illegal. The suspected criminal cannot be denied his right to a fair trial even if a majority of the citizenry demands otherwise.

Difference between Democracy and Republic, in brief:

Democracy:

a: government by the people; especially : rule of the majority.

b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.

Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether it be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences

Republic

a: a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch and who in modern times is usually a president : a political unit (as a nation) having such a form of government.

b: a government in which supreme power resides in a body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by elected officers and representatives responsible to them and governing according to law.

Democracy and Republic are often taken as one of the same thing, but there is a fundamental difference. Whilst in both cases the government is elected by the people, in Democracy the majority rules according to their whims, whilst in the Republic the Government rule according to law. This law is framed in the Constitution to limit the power of Government and ensuring some rights and protection to Minorities and individuals.

The difference between Republic and Righteous Republic is that in the Republic the Government rules according to the law set up by men, in the Righteous Republic the law is the Law of God. Only in the Righteous Republic it can truly be said "One nation under God" for it is governed under commandments of the only One True God and there is no pluralism of religions.

Autocracy declares the divine right of kings; its authority can not be questioned; its powers are arbitrarily or unjustly administered.

Mobocracy: 1. Political control by a mob. 2. The mass of common people as the source of political control.