12th Principle of Freedom

The United States of America Shall be a Republic.

Skousen lays out why a Republic guards freedom better than a Democracy. The most obvious to me is that a true republic consisting of 300,000,000 Americans as a legislative body would be very unwieldy. I could see the general public texting their vote on each piece of legislation just like they do for candidates on American Idol. Because each of us have lives to live, we wouldn't be able to focus on each issue and would choose according to the best information we had at the time, which might be only our mood at the moment. This is not the best way. Unfortunately, too many of our legislators currently have the same attitude when it comes to legislating.

Neal A. Maxwell, a religious leader, shared in his biography his experience working for a member of congress. He explains that one day the congress member rushed in at the last minute before a vote on a certain measure and asked, "How am I voting on this again?" before rushing off to cast it. This is appalling to me. This obviously is a problem with the majority of the American people. If the best are not being voted into office, it is because people are not at their best. As was pointed out to me in a comment from Jody Tate, "...we have precious few citizens who are virtuous or moral, let alone political leaders. 'But neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.' (Samuel Adams, quoted in The 5000 Year Leap, p 59)"

Our Republic has guaranteed our liberties for a long time, but people are becoming corrupt, forgetting everything, and everyone, but themselves. This is the day of MYspace, I-phones, I-pods, me, me, me, me. I think we can save our Republic if we begin to adopt the motto, "God, Family, Republic", instead of Me, Mine, My.