As my dentist is getting ready to drill my tooth, I’m having a mystical moment. I’m seeing nature at work, showering a whole lot of rain on our pretty much parched land.
An atmospheric river is soaking parts of northern California, and I can see the rain pouring down, just outside the window where I’m about to have my tooth overhauled.
All that rain, all at once, is taking my mind off what’s about to begin. But I’m also contemplating, along with the weather, the difference between the meaning of ‘democracy’ and ‘republic,’ because some folks I’ve known for a long time have been talking about the two words, and in the news, I’ve been hearing commentary about them.
From what I gather, from what’s being said, ‘democracy’ may not mean quite as much about freedom, as I’ve always believed. And the word ‘republic,’ they’re thinking, perhaps, more clearly describes our nation’s system of government.
Before arriving for my dental appointment, I’d looked up the two words in the dictionary.
‘Democracy’ is defined as “the belief in freedom and equality between people, or a system of government based on this belief, in which power is either held by elected representatives or directly by the people themselves.”
‘Republic’ is defined as “a political order in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them.”
Unless I’m missing something, I’m not seeing a whole lot of difference between the definitions of ‘democracy’ and ‘republic.’
The words, overall, seem to suggest freedom, and free people living in a free society, rather than the opposite of that, which would be oppressed folks living in societies that aren’t very free… folks residing in countries governed by autocratic rulers, or dictators. And not a whole lot of dictators, throughout the history of the world, have seemed to be particularly benevolent.
There was, long ago, Vlad the Impaler, for example, and with a name like that, he probably wasn’t an understanding kind of guy.
And over the years, other autocratic leaders, like Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, and Muammar Gaddafi weren’t exactly considered angels, either.
Vlad the Impaler, by the way, back in the 1400s, was a prince of Walachia, which was part of modern Romania, according to the online version of Britannica. He got his nickname because of his method of handling disagreements with folks.
Pol Pot “led the Khmer Rouge totalitarian regime in Cambodia that imposed severe hardships on the Cambodian people.”
And it’s doubtful that folks in the Soviet Union, under Stalin, and people in Iraq, under Hussein, and folks in Libya, under Gaddafi, could freely speak their mind, if they happened to disagree with their respective leader’s leadership style.
Outside, the wind’s picking up, the rain’s getting heavier, and I’m still wondering about those folks I know suggesting that democracies may be entirely too free – that’s what I’m thinking they’ve got in mind — while republics, maybe, are not as free, quite so much.
If that’s what they’re thinking, are they, in a way, throwing in the towel, for some reason, yearning for a little less freedom? Maybe buying into what some politicians and media personalities are trying to peddle.
And then I’m recalling, a fairly long time ago, observing a group of people, during a community town hall get-together, listening, as some business people were trying to peddle something they were thinking could be beneficial for the community.
And when the presentation drew to a close, with the business folks sort of waiting for some reaction, one of the community folks said; “We’ve been listening. We’ve heard what you have in mind, and I think we’d all agree that what you’re proposing is a bunch of baloney.”
Might that be about the same, with all that parsing of those two words, ‘democracy’ and ‘republic,’ two words, that in the dictionary, seem to mean about the same thing… about freedom.
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.