What in the World is a Constitutional Republic?

by Matt McGuire

4/26/2021

If you have spent any time in the past few months paying attention to political social media, reading the comments on any article about voting rights, or been sentenced to watch right wing television, you will have heard that we Americans live in a constitutional republic.  

This point, most famously made by Sen. Mike Lee (R, Utah), is frequently dragged out in rebuttal whenever anyone makes the argument that things like voter suppression are offenses against our democracy.  [Of course, Lee is arguing for the rights of the current Republican minority in the Senate.  Had the Senate remained in the control of the Republicans, his story may be a little different.]

His point is true, to the extent that we do indeed have a Constitution, & the term republic simply implies the absence of a hereditary monarchy.  You have to wonder, though, if the people making this point have actually read the Constitution that established our republic (I know people like Madison Cawthorn & Lauren Boebert have read the 2nd amendment…it is only 1 sentence…). Our Constitution makes clear the form of government that was to be established in America…a representative democracy.  

Our congressional Representatives & Senators are directly elected by the people of their district or state, & the President is elected by the members of the electoral college, whose members are traditionally chosen according to the popular vote of each state.  This form of representative government has been adopted by all state & local governments throughout the nation as well.  We elect our governors & our mayors, our state legislators & our county commissioners.  In many parts of the country, we even elect our judges.  This seems obviously to be a form of democracy…

I think the point that people like Sen. Lee are really trying to make is that this should not be the case.  It appears that they would prefer a system with less democracy, or none at all.  They appear to believe that a representative democracy that guarantees representation to all people is an unacceptable state of the nation.

In order to rectify this situation, the Republican Party has once again adopted the age-old strategies of limiting citizens’ ability to take part in the nation’s political life (through voter suppression) & limiting the effectiveness of that participation when they do (through gerrymandering).  These are tried & true strategies that have been used in American politics since before there was an America.  Although the Preamble to the Constitution begins with the words “We the People…”, the facts on the ground at the time indicate that only a small percentage of the population was considered to be part of “the People”.  When the Constitution was ratified, only white adult males with property had civil rights in most states.  Women had few if any rights.  It was considered lawful to enslave Black people, & to conquer & murder Native Americans, because they were considered barely human, at best.  It has only been through over two centuries of constant struggle that this situation has been partially rectified.  All Americans now have the legal right to take part in their representative democracy. This has been the main & constant defining struggle of American history.

It is no longer socially acceptable for politicians to say things like ‘Black people don’t deserve consideration as part of “the People”’.   Although one of the many travesties of the Trump interregnum is the trend toward honesty among GOP politicians; most of them still hide behind phrases like “election integrity”, “prevention of voter fraud” or “constitutional republic”.  The intent behind the actions they cover with these phrases should be clear…it is to make sure that certain Americans are no longer considered part of “We the People”.

There were no appreciable irregularities in the 2020 election, nor in the 2018 election.  It may be worthwhile to ask certain Russians about irregularities in 2016, but the GOP has managed to push that election down deep in the national memory hole.  “Election integrity” only applies to elections they lose, apparently…

The ongoing efforts by GOP officials throughout the country are nothing more than a blatant attempt to remove representative democracy from our political system, starting by removing it from our political lexicon.  It should be our first & foremost duty as active citizens to make sure this does not happen.  If we are to live up to the second phrase of the Preamble, and “form a more perfect union”, we must ensure that the democratic rights inherent in our form of government are guaranteed, equally, to all.  If we do not, we must realize that these rights are, in the end, guaranteed to none.

Stalin’s USSR was, after all, a constitutional republic…

File under: voter suppression, gerrymandering, democratic republic, constitutional republic, representative democracy,