We know that this nation came into being after the victory of the War of Independence. At this time, a Constitution was drawn up and ratified by the states. But there is more to it than that. A confusion in terms always has led to a misunderstanding in definition. There are some who feel quite strongly that “democracy” is a principle, and was never intended to become a form of government. The word “democracy” does not appear once in our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or the Declaration of Independence. In our Salute to the Flag, known by every school boy and girl in America, it is the “Republic” for which we stand—not a “Democracy.” Of course the words are used almost interchangeably in the encyclopedia, and we know that the purest form of democracy envisions the realistic participation in the government on the part of all the governed. Town meetings were typical of this in the past, but as our society became more complex, it was found impractical to hold these, and as a result, representatives were selected, and a Republic evolved. It all boiled down to what might be called a practicing democracy, because people do have the opportunity today to make their desires known as to how and by whom they will be governed—that is, however, on condition that they express themselves at the voting polls.
The framers of our Constitution sought to give each department of government its due share of power, and to prevent any one of them from making itself supreme. In his “Back to the Republic,” Harry E. Atwood comments: “Almost daily Russia is spoken of as ‘the new republic.’ That phrase is as inaccurate as it would be to speak of a drunken man as a new example of temperance. To speak of Mexico as a ‘republic’ is as inaccurate as it would be to speak of fanaticism as a new form of reverence. To call Communist China a ‘republic’ is as far-fetched as it would be to speak of insomnia as a new form of rest ... for at the present time, these are all types of democracy, they are not republics....”
In the “Federalist,” James Madison said of our government: “The true distinction between these forms (democracy and republic) is that in a democracy the people meet and exercise the government in person. In a republic they assemble and administer it by their representative agents.... The first question that offers itself is whether the general form and aspect of the government be strictly republican? It is evident that no other form would be reconcilable with the genius of the American people.”
We know from the experiences of other nations that perfection in government never has been found via the route of mob rule. If we think otherwise we play right into the hands of the Communists and all others who oppose our government. Unethical procedure in any established order is brought about little by little. The theory of lesser concessions is always active. In our trend toward paternalism in government we must constantly guard against the ogre of an established bureaucracy, a denying to the individual those “inalienable rights” of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” so definitely vouchsafed to him in the Republican form of government which was established in this country “under God.” With any impairment of our system of checks and balances, all power to protect every man’s God-given rights is rendered impotent.
Everywhere people are expressing the thought that, “Things just can’t go on like this,” and “What is going to happen?” Is there then, a sense of impending judgment in the very atmosphere itself? Let me illustrate the theory of lesser concessions mentioned above. Back in September, 1932, during a campaign speech at Sioux City, President Roosevelt accused the Hoover administration of being the greatest spendthrift in U. S. history; that bureaus and bureaucrats had been retained at the taxpayers’ expense, and then he proceeded to out-Hoover Hoover with alphabetical agencies to the point where cartoonists branded us “alphabetical goofs.”
The Foundation for Economic Education at Irvington-on-Hudson, has compiled some interesting statistics:
| “Expended by all Presidents up to Lincoln | $1,795,319,694 |
| “Expended by Lincoln (including the Civil War) | 3,252,380,410 |
| “Spent by Johnson thru Taft | 19,373,146,217 |
| “Wilson (including World War I) | 47,938,260,143 |
| “Warren G. Harding | 6,667,235,429 |
| “Calvin Coolidge | 18,585,549,115 |
| “Herbert Hoover | 15,490,476,636 |
| “Franklin D. Roosevelt (including eight years of peace) | 67,518,746,001 |
| “Total expended by all Presidents from the beginning to July 1, 1945 | $179,630,113,645 |
| “Total spent by Harry S. Truman from July 1, 1945, to September 1, 1949 | $191,081,394,191” |
With constantly rising taxes and increased government spending, the dollar bill soon will be worthless, as will be the paper on which it is printed. A mathematician figuring hurriedly on his cuff, comments: “We’ll be back to where the South was in 1865, with its worthless Confederate money.” Why? Little by little our executive branch has usurped the functions of Congress, under the flimsy guise of a so-called “mandate” from us, the people. Unless we become aware of what we have permitted to happen in our midst, and elect people to Congress who will make the government their servant and not their master, we will soon be where the Germans were under Hitler, the Italians under Mussolini, and where the Russians are today, under Stalin—and the British to a lesser degree, under their socialist regime.
For the first time in global history, the forces are drawn between two distinct ways of life—Christianity and Barbarism. Through the cobwebs of confusion and the roadblocks of distortion we now know that our one enemy is Stalin and his particular brand of thuggery. Modern, civilized peoples throughout the universe, including those behind the iron curtain, have but one common enemy—Communism. If we do indeed believe what we profess, as Christians, to believe, “Man cannot serve God and Mammon,” how can we expect a United Nations to succeed in anything so long as the head of the Communist Governments, the world over, is represented in its midst?
All doubt and uncertainty has been dispelled as to who, where and how our enemy operates. In China we have seen the Communist system operate to the complete disintegration of human rights. Here in the United States we do not know precisely how many Communists are among us, or exactly where and how they connive. We are told on good authority (J. Edgar Hoover) that they are growing in strength and numbers as well as going underground, but we are unable to put our fingers on enough of them. Communism operates and succeeds by deception here as in the early phases of China’s recent history. It bores from within. Frequently its voice is soft and seductive, like the voice of Delilah, and equally treacherous. As we have seen though, once it has the situation in hand, it does not hesitate to use brute force.