IS AMERICA A DEMOCRACY OR A REPUBLIC?

IS AMERICA A DEMOCRACY OR A REPUBLIC?

We owe an outstanding debt to a younger generation of Americans who chose to practice democracy. America and Americans reaffirmed our belief in democracy in the 2022 midterm election. Democracy matters, our voices matter in any democracy, and we make our voices heard by voting.
 
When many people voted during the 2022 election cycle, they understood that the United States Constitution defines America as a democracy and a republic. Our Constitution was meant to nurture an intricate form of majority rule, not enable minority rule by any political party or person. We rejected all monarchies and authoritarian autocracies long ago in 1776 and then enshrined these values in the Constitution.
 
Many of our public buildings have engraved on them this phrase in Latin — “Vox Populi, Vox Dei.” Translated into English, the words mean — “Voice of the People, Voice of God.” As an ancient proverb or aphorism, the phrase is intended to validate the wisdom of the crowd or the wisdom of the people. Today, it is worth remembering the value of this heritage.
 
The historical roots of its meaning go back to ancient Greece and Roman times and to England and the early 1700s during the Age of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment was an intellectual movement in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that sought to improve society through fact-based reason and inquiry. It arose from the religious and political wars of the Reformation, fought over competing interpretations of Christianity. There was a diversity of religious and theological thought then, as there is today. A variety of faiths and multiculturalism existed in that time, as it does today in America and Europe, as it exists in all healthy democracies.
 
The “Age of Enlightenment and Reason” brought new ways of thinking and knowledge to Europe and America. The Enlightenment reshaped how people understood liberty, equality, and individual rights. And it integrated the Scientific Revolution of the 17th Century that revolutionized intellectual thought through research and empirical methods. It introduced the separation of church and state and gave us new ways of understanding ourselves as people of faith, many faiths. Today, these ideas are the basis of the world’s healthiest democracies.
 
The United States Constitution harmonized and merged democratic and republican models of government so that they might act in concert. We are, therefore, a Constitutional-Democratic-Republic with a separation of powers shared by our executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government. In short, the United States is both a democracy and a republic.
 
Whenever politicians claim in their rhetoric that “we are not a democracy” or “we are a Christian nation,” they reframe history and redefine our historical perspective for their political agendas. They are wrong to do so, especially when seeking greater political power and influence. Democracy matters and each generation of Americans must rise to protect our democratic heritage—the wisdom of the people rules.
 
“Vox Populi, Vox Dei” — “Voice of the People, Voice of God.”