Canuckus Deploracus wrote:
Unfortunately words often have multiple meanings, or grades of meanings, or are used to represent ideas that have similar meanings...
What is the DemocratIc People's Republic of Korea?
A Democracy (as you claim) or a Republic (Which you believe to be the opposite of a Democracy)?
How do you reconcile the two terms?
Note: I Personally believe that the DPRK is neither a Democracy, nor a Republic... The quandary is found solely in your insistence of attributing absolute and singular definitions to terms...
Unfortunately words often have multiple meanings, ... (
show quote)
Thusfar, this thread is like watching a tennis match in which, idea for idea, one is rooting for both players.
A true democracy is, in every sense, an invitation to mob rule -- all it takes is for a self elected prime mover on one side to have a strong "gift of gab" and persuade enough people to see things his way, or for enough people to either overreact to certain circumstances or for a majority to decide its priorities should take precedence over the minority's, right or wrong, good or bad...
Our own republic is predicated on the requirement that all participants respect and follow the rules (in this case, the Constitution) in order for it to work.
It also requires a certain amount of responsibility by all participants, including not only the elected officials, but the "free press" as well, since we afford them privileged access to said elected officials and to various events of importance with the agreement that they will accurately report the data gleaned from this access in order to keep the voting public informed, therefore able to process the information and make their own decisions as to whom they will vote for to represent them at the city, state and federal levels.
When the above responsibilities are abused, the entire system malfunctions, as it has in recent years, at least to some degree.
It's about playing by the rules, and, very unfortunately, we have allowed proponents of a system compatible with neither true democracy nor constitutional republic to infiltrate our system, not unlike a virus, advertising itself as democratic while actually pushing us toward something more along the lines of fascism.
They have converted the lion's share of our "free press" into a propaganda medium while financing the campaigns of abusers who not only don't play by the established rules, but hold them in contempt as well, and in a few short years have done a lot of damage to our republic, by both dividing the people into a number of mutually hostile factions and forcing "ideas" down our throats that not long ago would have gone entirely against the grain of our collective American sensibilities.
My Canadianese friend, you yourself make the point that semantics is a factor and indeed it is, citing the DPRK as not really being a democracy as its title implies. Many such dictatorships seem to enjoy using the term "democratic" when they are no such thing, and even here in America our own Democratic Party, willfully or otherwise, is gradually pushing us down a road whose end, if we are ever unfortunate enough to arrive there, would be anything but democratic.
They are doing this by tossing those rules I mentioned out the proverbial window, both their elected officials and the mainstream media working in tandem, and as such have started a civil war of sorts, an "us versus them" political environment in which those of us who believe in the rules are fighting to return our country to it's previous state in which all those institutions of governance and information also play by the rules.
It's like trying to plug ever-multiplying holes in a dam, because the generals behind what amounts to the "invading force" never tire of opening new fronts on diverse, unexpected battlefields.
The emergence of the Trump era has created an even deeper state of urgency among "the enemy" because this president threatens to nullify all or most of the ground they have gained in their war on our constitutional republic, which is why they have abandoned even a pretense of decency, morality or love of our system of government, going all out to snatch whatever victory they can from the jaws of defeat.
Off topic, have you by chance ever run across a blog called "The Gweilo Diaries?"