What’s in a name? Quite a lot actually. For instance, there is a name that, when spoken properly, can actually call to G-d. In a significantly more mundane issue, the Founding Fathers carefully chose a name for our nation and for our form of government. The youth, in their typical arrogance (remember when you were the same?) think the Founding Fathers were a bunch of privileged, rich, white guys. That prejudice ignores the pure brilliance of their creation. But on to names.
The United States of America
State
The concept of State is a sovereign entity with its own constitution, and legislative, executive and judicial branches. The State is composed of like-minded individuals who freely choose to form a State to better their personal and interstate interactions.
United
The various States determined to band together in a union to protect the borders of our nation (military and law enforcement) and establish an Inter-State commerce system to facilitate private business interactions. That said, the concept of State as a separate, sovereign entity was and is vital to the original, underlying reason for the creation of our nation: individual rights that supersede the power of a State and a Nation.
The Constitutional Republic
Two words that define the form of our government and establishes the basic fight between democracy and republic. Democracy sounds great: one person, one vote. And it is, except when human nature intervenes, as it did originally with Cain and Able, to subvert human interactions. The endpoint of democracy is the rule of the many over the few. Read “Lord of the Flies” or “1984” for insight. Or study the eventual destruction of any tyranny, for instance, Argentina, Cuba or communist Russia. Democracy inevitably leads to tyranny and then chaos. Socialism and Communism are simply two forms that democracy takes.
The Constitutional Republic is a nation governed by the rule of law. That Law is the Constitution. Its sole purpose is to limit the inevitable accretion of power to the federal government and the resulting destruction of individual rights. Our Constitutional Republic protects individuals in many ways, principle among them is the sovereignty of the individual, and by extension, his/her State.
When formed, our nation recognized that certain States had greater populations, and therefore would have greater representation in the federal government (House of Representatives is based on population size). They sought to moderate that potential assault on individual freedom (do you want California deciding your life?) by establishing a Senate, composed of two senators from each state regardless of that state’s size, to balance the House. The Founding Fathers also established an Electoral College to further prevent the tyranny of the more populated states over the less. The Electoral College establishes a system whereby the smaller states have a voice in Presidential elections.
Therefore, those misguided who would eliminate the Electoral College, actually usurp the State of its right to sovereignty. And by doing so, further, strip the rights of the individual from its citizens. Remember, our nation was formed solely and strictly to guarantee the rights of the individual, and not allow the tyranny of the many to exert undue influence over the individual.
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