Dear Editor:

Research is usually accomplished via the Internet, but when you are collecting minimum wage increase signatures at Yellowfront Grocery, research is live as many delightedly sign, while others ask questions and one, challenged research results on whether we are a democracy or a republic, leading to more research.

The good news is that these shoppers are reading and they care about participating in their own governance. That is a sign of hope for our representative democracy. All questions or challenges of fact are as important as collecting petition signatures. Current researchers often conclude we are an oligarchy – the very governance our forefathers fought to avoid. Benjamin Franklin stated that they had formed a republic, but added, “if you can keep it."

The threat to a representative democracy since 400 BC has always been narrow special interests taking precedence over the commonwealth. To keep the republic, Franklin knew we would have to do more to protect the four components that differentiate a representative democracy — the sovereignty of the people; a sense of the common good; government dedicated to the commonwealth; and resistance to corruption. Former senator Gary Hart recently warned us “America’s Founding Principles Are in Danger of Corruption.”

Measured against the 400 BC standards for republics, the American republic is corrupt. A republic corruption occurs when self-interest is placed above the interest of all—the public interest. Major steps toward democracy are in amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The main amendment tipping the scales from the United States being a mere republic to being a true representative democracy was the Seventeenth Amendment, making both the constitutional challenger and I correct — the US government is both a republic and a democracy. Now I can get back to direct democracy activity — collecting signatures on our petitions.

Jarryl Larson

Edgecomb