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Why is the word "democracy" not in the preamble of the US Constitution?

Last Updated: 17.06.2025 03:28

Why is the word "democracy" not in the preamble of the US Constitution?

Another tendency, which is extremely natural to democratic nations and extremely dangerous, is that which leads them to despise and undervalue the rights of private persons.

Majority-rules democracy is the way that majorities run roughshod over minorities, destroying rights and all ideas of equality under the law. No fair-minded person wants anything to do with democracy.

Why? Try these on for size:

When you visit a store, do you go to shop or buy?

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

In other words, our Founding Fathers and other Whig intellects of that time well understood that democratic methods are the surefire means to do serious damage to the rights guaranteed under republican self-government.

Meanwhile, when the Democratic Party formed in 1828, it was with a Tory outlook keen on robbing others of their rights:

What were my 10 favorite great rock albums that were either forgotten or hardly known by the rock community at large during 1965-‘75?

To blacks: “You can’t drink from that water fountain… eat in this cafeteria… ride this bus… go to this school. We voted fair and square and your side lost.

When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.

—John Adams

Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?

To Indians: “Pack up what belongings you can carry and start walking to Oklahoma. Your fertile lands are ours now. We voted fair and square and your side lost.”

—Benjamin Franklin

—Thomas Jefferson

What would you change in Rings of Power?

To slaves: “You can forget your notions of freedom. We voted fair and square and your side lost.”

I do not say that democracy has been more pernicious on the whole, and in the long run, than monarchy or aristocracy. Democracy has never been and never can be so durable as aristocracy or monarchy; but while it lasts, it is more bloody than either.

—Alexis de Tocqueville

How can you tell if someone is cunning?

[with republicanism being the rights-protecting form of governance afforded us by our Constitution]