Is it too late to save our Republic?

 History has not been kind in its review of past experiments by Homo sapiens in self-governing.  Whatever the heights reached, all past experiments have collapsed. 

•   Those that were based on the personal power of an individual failed when that person died.
• Those based on an ideal of any sort, failed when those ideals were abandoned in practice if not in words.

Students of various concentrations will focus on different elements of any society, even as they agree that there is "trouble in Paradise."  Those who study human nature will suggest one of many as the major reason for decline.  Those who come from a study of the Bible will agree in part but disagree in still another part, while those who study politics and governance will come up with still another major factor.

Who is right?

I don't know... absolutely.  I strongly suspect that the most accurate answer is likely to be an amalgam of all of those raised, plus some not yet discussed (at least to our knowledge).

But I have a suggestion for a prime "trigger" that guaranteed the collapse of our Republic.  And I place the blame on a historical hero of the United States of America:  

                                            Abraham Lincoln!

Surprised?  Yeah... me too.  But hear me out.  There are two absolute truths that contribute to the inevitability of the collapse of the United States of America:

1. The inherent limitations of a Republic to remain responsive to the citizenry, and
2. the inherent nature of man to never relinquish control once acquired.

Limitations of a Republic:

In November of 2013, Professor Donald Livingston, Professor Emeritus at Emory University, gave a speech at the University of Virginia on Republicanism (the government form, not the political ideology), David Hume, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln.  That speech was broadcast on C-SPAN.  Now, most of us have had ideas come to us suddenly and the proverbial light bulb appears.  But...this speech caused flashbulbs of incredible brilliance going off continually.  Never before had I even considered the effect of our form of government on the current status of political representation.

I had been taught that our government was not a pure democracy but a Republic.  But the differences between a pure democracy and a republic were never a matter of intense or critical study.  Nor was there ever a study of the advantages and/or limitations of a republican form of government.

Had this been, and does it continue to be, a missing element is our Social and Governmental studies?  To answer that question completely requires a reading and study of commentaries on the subject by David Hume and Thomas Jefferson.  Or...for the equivalent of a Cliff Notes summary you might want to watch Prof. Livingston's speech on C-SPAN (  http://www.c-span.org/video/?316075-1/ThomasJeffers   ) which would reduce what otherwise would take months of study to about an hour of video.  The substance of what stuck with me from watching and listening to Professor Livingston I present below...and I am confident that substance will get your attention and initiate thought and debate.

The general view of republican governance was one where size mattered, if you were going to have representative rule.  If you get too big, you lose representative responsiveness.  Jefferson's vision was one of additional republics being formed as both population and area grew, maintaining the people's control of government.  The republics would then band together in a Commonwealth for cooperative defense and trade.  Up until the Civil War, succession was often discussed and seen as a legitimate evolving action for growth.  It wasn't until Abraham Lincoln reflecting the governmental philosophy of Thomas Hobbs, determined, by force, that the southern states could not secede, and the "indivisible" term became the norm when speaking about the republic. Jefferson's view of the various republics being the political unit, to one where people became the political unit and control was to be centralized.  The French Revolution resulted in the formation of the French Republic, the first modern large modern state republic, looking to the individual as the political unit.

No one comments on the mutually exclusive concepts of republican government as laid out by Jefferson and then by Lincoln (following the Hobbs model), and yet the significance and effects of this clash on our lives is long standing and enormous. The two approaches are incompatible, as Livingstone states.

At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, the House of Representatives elected one Representative for every 30,000 people.  But in 1911 the number of Representatives was capped at 435.  The result is that today there is one Representative for every 720,000 people.   

If the 720,000 to 1 ratio were applied to the original 13 states, the House would be composed of 5 members, and 8 states would have no representatives at all.

On the other hand, to keep the same 30,000 to 1 ratio today, the House would have 10,500 members.

We have outgrown our ability to functionally self-govern.  The result is the gradual buildup of awareness on the part of the public that "their" government is no longer "theirs!"  Add that to the fact that over time those involved in governing become intoxicated with their power and influence and lose all instinct to hide their disrespect and disdain for those who elect them, and the awareness of loss of both freedom and benefit from the government becomes a growing visceral anger in the citizenry.  

The Human DNA-based desire to retain power benefit once achieved:

There is no proof that Abraham Lincoln knew about the conceptual and operational limitations of a Republic.  And there seems much to suggest that he was not a power-hungry person ready to sacrifice others to his personal goals, but was rather a person who cared about others and would have earnestly denied being "power-hungry."

But he was surrounded by elected officials who certainly saw the possibility of the southern states breaking away and forming their own Republic as a loss of power (and certainly financial opportunities).  On his part, it is arguable that he would see the formation of a southern republic as a sign that he had failed as President to "protect" the "country" as he viewed it.

His (and the northern states) success in preventing the formation of a new Republic cemented the ultimate destruction of the United States of America.  It is now too large to govern on the basis of citizen control, and that is proven by the current behavior of the National Government in dictating to citizens rather than looking to those citizens for direction.

That the argument for placing the burden of History on Abraham Lincoln for the ultimate demise of the United States of America.

Are we all on The "Plantation?"

 Humans are made uneasy, sometimes even scared, by "different."  When we were kids, a new kid in school had to be... what is today's grown-up word?... "vetted" before he became a part of the integral group.

This has been true all through human history.  It won't change.  And... it isn't a bad or good thing, just an element of life.

What used to make America Great (among a number of things) was that people who were "different" came here ready to contribute but also ready to assimilate.  They assimilated habits, attitudes, ideas from those already here BUT those already here also learned about and adopted habits, attitudes and ideas from the newcomers.

Were there fights?  Yes!  Was there disrespect and derision coming from both sides?  Of course.  But the end was that when a person who came to this country showed that they could do a job, would respect the truth and tell it, as well be happy for the opportunity to become part of the country... there was acceptance, assimilation, and the "melting pot" became a fact and was proven to work.

Even today, Blacks see discrimination when they are not automatically accepted as they are, or their behavior and ideas are not embraced.  Why is that discrimination?  Why aren't they expected to go through the same "rite of passage" that the rest of us had to experience?  Italians were disrespected, not accepted, nor were their ideas of life when they arrived.  It took time for them to embrace American life as it existed, get used to the habits and mores of those already here... but when it happened, they became a part of the whole. 

The exact same thing happened to the Irish, the Scandinavians, the Spanish, and all the other nationalities that came to American shores.  There was no difference in the challenge.

There WAS one difference, though.  and that was that most people of color did not choose to come to America.  They were enslaved by their own people, sold to middlemen, and the brought to America where Plantation owners continued the enslavement.  THAT was profoundly different... and injurious.

But no person of color today in America that wishes to be a part of America has any impediment different from every other citizen if he or she wants to strive to be a successful part of America.  Look at the success of President Obama... of Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Supreme Court Justice Thomas, Senator Tim Scott and others.  They succeeded because of effort and showing a desire to join with others to accomplish positive things.

The biggest impediment to to Blacks today is an attitude that many of them hold that was fostered by the very political party that claims to want to "help" them... the Democrat Party, together with the portion of them that can be labeled as "Race Profiteers."  Giving anyone, regardless of background, education, skin color or foot size, money because they are not succeeding in school or in the workplace is not helping them...It rewards the imprisonment of dependency.

What should have happened was the creating of programs that rewarded success, mandated successful teaching, in school and in trades, that was proven by accomplishment.  Don't reward birthing children into single parent homes.  Hunt down "fathers" and enforce their support of the children they father.  Show respect by expecting accomplishment and success even as you make tutorial help available where needed... provided the recipient(s) work to benefit from the help.  Reward 100% attendance in schools.  Then step back and see how the colored community matches and may even outpace the accomplishments of those from other parts of the world when they come to America.  They are just as able and I claim we disrespect them by not expecting superior accomplishments and contributing to American Life in major ways as a regular thing.

But...back to the headline...

Has anyone else noticed how all of America is starting to look like one giant plantation?  One controlled by a limited group of "overseers" and brooking no challenge to their authority?

We now life under a dual dictatorship of the government bureaucracy and angry minority of various deviant purposes.  We now are being forced to promote beliefs, actions and attitudes of which we disapprove.  Once we were prepared to ignore beliefs found abhorrent in the interest of civil individual freedom. 

Suddenly we have to promote behavior, mistreatment of children, and deviant lifestyles or we find ourselves fired and unable to support our families.  That is no different from being enslaved on a plantation or being an indentured servant!  We no longer even have the right to decide what power we want to use to power our cars, or cook with, or walk around without a diaper over our faces if the overseers declare that we must.  And that is also true about medical procedures.  Now our plantation overseers can declare we need to be injected with something on the grounds that "IT IS GOOD FOR US," all to be taken on "trust" and without any proof that has been checked for truth and accuracy.  That has already happened during the COVID fiasco.  And it is being threated again, and will be activated whenever the overseers deem it necessary to prove to us that THEY are in control and that WE must obey.

It is a large plantation and often feels as if we have a degree of freedom, but stop and look around and you'll see the same walls being built around us that emulate the process that hunters used to use to trap wild pigs.  Put out free food!  Put up a fence next to the food!  Keep putting out more food!  Add a second side of the fence!  More food!  Build a third side of the fence and add more food.  Finally put up the gate and you have the pigs trapped and you can feed them OR NOT at your discretion because you now own them.  Our government denies it but that is what they are doing to our entire country.  When they have the right mix of people here they will finish the fencing, shut the gates and they will own us and no longer try to hide it.