Democracy

I was watching the American Muslim who fled to Yemen, Alwaki, on tape preaching to his converts and he said imagine living under a form of government where the majority rules. That is American and the majority can take away the rights of Muslims whenever they want. This man like many others does not understand that the United States is not a democracy but by designed is almost the opposite of a democracy. We have a Representative Republic and many Americans do not understand what that means. In a democracy the rights of the majority rule but in a Republic the right of law rules. A simple way to understand the difference is to recall justice in the old west. The posse goes after a suspect and when they catch up with him they take a vote to hang him and if the majority agrees the suspect is summarily hanged. In a Republic the sheriff arrives and takes the suspect in for trial by law. Even when the jury deliberates they must reach a unanimous decision not a majority rule. In short we have rule of law not majority rule.

Some of the confusion arises because we have elections by majority but we elect representatives who must then follow the constitution which is the law of the land. Even all the states have such constitutions and no where in the constitution or the declaration of independence is the word democracy mentioned.