What is a Republic? Aren’t we a Democracy?

“The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.” -Thomas Jefferson, 1790

Utah…a pretty great state. It’s a place where the majority believe “The glory of God is intelligence” and that God raised up the Founders of our nation to give us an inspired Constitution to protect the freedom of all people.

In Article 4, section 4 of the U.S. Constitution we read:

“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government…”

What is a Republic? Is it a government based on law and elected representatives that examine issues and vote on our behalf. Supreme power resides in the citizens to vote in their representatives.

What is a Democracy? A Democracy is a form of government where everyone gets a voice on every issue and it always ends in mob rule. A true Democracy only works on a small scale. It is unreasonable to have every citizen vote on every issue, and where this has been practiced in the past, it always destroys the peace of the people.

As you’ll find out in the education pages of this website, the term “democracy” has been hijacked and made into a more palatable word for everyday use to pull us away from the understanding of why free people need a Republic.

Government's Influence

Proper Republican Government

In the Utah constitution, the section devoted to characteristics of our public education system states in paragraph 5, that the “Legislature shall assist in maintaining a public education system that:

53A-1a-104. Characteristics of public education system.
…
(5) offers a world-class core curriculum that enables students to successfully compete in a global society, and to succeed as citizens of a constitutional republic;

So how is Utah doing educating our citizens in the most critical aspect of our governmental foundation?

(Out of all the people we interviewed, only 1 was educated in Utah public schools that knew we have a Republic. )

Why are our citizens so misinformed?

“Enculturating the Young into a Social and Political Democracy.”

For years this district has put this motto on all their official literature sent to the public and polluted the minds of thousands of teachers, tens of thousands of students, and hundreds of thousands of citizens who naturally assume that the local school district knows what they’re talking about.

Whatever the reason for this district’s desire to indoctrinate our children into a form of government against the state and federal constitutions, it is dangerous to our freedoms that our children don’t understand the concept of a Republic and why it is necessary to preserve the peace, prosperity, and happiness of our citizens. Unfortunately, this district is just one of many not properly teaching these concepts to our children.

What are we petitioning for?

To this end, we call upon legislators and state officials to correct the K-12 social studies standards in Utah which do not mention a single time that our form of government is a Republic. We ask that several standards be modified to reflect a new emphasis on our proper form of government and do away with false notions being taught in our schools to our impressionable children. We ask that a required course for graduation would be taught from a book that explains the founding of our nation in the words of the founders, such as “The Making of America”, “The 5,000 Year Leap”, or another book that explains our constitition by the original intent of our Founders.

Big deal. Why does it matter that we teach we are a Republic?

“A nation of well informed men who have been taught to know and prize the rights which God has given them cannot be enslaved. It is in the region of ignorance that tyranny begins.”
- Benjamin Franklin

A Republic relies on law to protect the rights of all members of a society. A Democracy maintains that whatever the majority decides should become the standard by which society lives. We can clearly see the erosion of our rights to life, liberty, and property over the past several decades as this notion that we are a Democracy has taken a more prominent place in our education system.

It is among the greatest disservice to our Founding Fathers that we have apostatized from the course of freedom they sacrificed all to give us.

Please visit our education center on this site to solidify your understanding of what a Republic is, and please sign the petition to support back-to-basics teaching of these concepts to our children in the public schools. Only an educated populace can preserve freedom.