29 October—It seems like only a few months ago that we welcomed Steve Bannon to Connecticut when he checked into the Federal Correction Institution in Danbury to serve his sentence for contempt of Congress. (While we proudly proclaim our ever increasing contempt for Congress, contempt of Congress can be detrimental to personal freedom, as Bannon’s brief sojourn in Danbury has shown.)

And indeed it was only a few months ago that Bannon arrived at Danbury on 2 July. And, having served his time without any problems (as far as we know), he was released just this morning. Congratulations to Steve. Too bad he couldn’t have been sprung in time to join the obnoxious speakers at the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday night. He’d certainly have contributed his share of repulsive repartee.

🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️🏛️

An astute historian and observer whom The Monitor is privileged to have as a (hyper)critical reader reminded us yesterday (for the third or fourth time) that America has never been a democracy. The reminder was totally unnecessary as we’ve never but never called nor been under the impression that the United States is a democracy. He was alluding, of course, to our reference to antidemocratic provisions of the Constitution in yesterday’s disquisition.

Just to make things perfectly clear, as Tricky Dickie Nixon was wont or at least known to say, the United States is a republic. And that’s all. But just as the Constitution and Declaration of Independence don’t mention anything at all about democracy or democratic principles, nor do they explicitly mention anything about being a republic—or any form of government, for that matter.

In fact, the only time we see “republic” in the Constitution is adjectivally in Section 4 of Article IV when it refers to the states: “The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.”

Simply put, the Founding Fathers, being realists, knew better than to trust the great unwashed (a term eschewed by liberals and Procter & Gamble) with running a government. But, being clever politicians (and realists), they also knew that ultimate power lay with the great unwashed. (As well as the military or militia, of course, but that’s another matter.)

That’s why the Constitution goes on about implicitly democratic things like popular sovereignty and limited government. But popular sovereignty—the consent or will of the people—is severely restricted by provisions of the Constitution itself, just as government is limited only as government itself determines—precisely because of the restrictions on popular sovereignty. A vicious cycle, if you will. And clearly, unquestionably antidemocratic. For better or worse. Your call.

Politicians like to blather about preserving democracy and threats to democracy not only because they’re ignorant, but also because it sounds good—for the very reason the Founding Fathers knew better than to trust the great unwashed with running government . . .