> >> Carey Fisher - NCS wrote:
   > >>
   > >>> Pure Democracy, otherwise known as "majority rule"
   >
   > Actually, the point of my reply didn't seem to get through...
   > :)  It was
   > meant to, in a way, ask where you get this from. Here where I
   > am, "majority
   > rule" is one form of democracy (that may appear in still
   > different forms),
   > "representative democracy" is another form of democracy (that
   > may appear in
   > still different forms), and so on. I'm not quite sure "pure
   > democracy" is a
   > well-defined term; it's probably as well-defined as "pure
   > <anything>" and
   > primarily a point of view rather than a generally accepted definition.
   >
   > Since I'm an ESL programmer (anyone who doesn't know what this

   >
   > Gerhard

Well, the real point is that in a democracy, the majority, whether it be
 directly or through representatives, can arbitrarily vote to relieve you of
life, liberty,
 property or the pursuit of happiness.  In our country, a republic, (Article
IV,
 Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union
 a republican form of government...) that can't happen except by passing
 laws which apply to everyone equally and which can be overturned only by
 the Supreme Court on the basis they don't implement the Constitution.
So, you have two important processes in our country - people are treated
by an pre-existing written law, not a vote and all people are treated the
same under the same laws.  This is the "equal protection under the law"
clause of the Constitution - Amendment XIV, Section 1.

All Your Bucks Are Belong to US Govt


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