A Republic … If You Can Keep It

Nobody asked but …

The title above is based on a Benjamin Franklin quote, often cited.  It implies that a republic is a good thing, worth keeping.  At the time of Franklin’s observation, republics went back to the heyday of Rome and Athens, and were the merest step apart from monarchy.  A good definition of “republic” would point out that it was doublespeak for aristocracy.

The form of government on these shores is a slightly distorted copy of England’s constitutional monarchy.  We think we are the dernier cri but we are old dogs.  How are any of our presidents different from monarchs, dictators, prime ministers, or emperors … or other presidents?  Our politicians are adept at doublespeak, not at innovation.  Our representatives call servitude “freedom,” “choice,” or “self determination.”

The human race has been accepting of implied superiority for the few and inferiority of the many, for millennia.

— Kilgore Forelle

 

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