"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...



-snip-


Don't feel bad. I've seen this question come up online, and in personal
discussions, for over 20 years. None of the four-flushers who make
statements like yours can ever answer that question. That's because, once
the Founders' actual words are shown to them, along with a comment or two
from real historians, they realize that someone fed them a line and they
believed it, without taking the time to look for themselves.

Just so you have it firmly in your mind now, I'll refresh your memory
about the words of Madison and Jefferson on the subject:

"...A REPUBLIC, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of
representation takes place... -- Madison, Federalist 10

"It is, that in a DEMOCRACY, the people meet and exercise the government
in person; in a REPUBLIC, they assemble and administer it by their
representatives and agents." -- Madison, Federalist 14

"On this view of the import of the term REPUBLIC, instead of saying, as
has been said, -- that it may mean anything or nothing --, we may say with
truth and meaning, that governments are more or less REPUBLICAN, as they
have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their
composition..." -- Jefferson, letter to John Taylor, 1816

"Action by the citizens in person, in affairs within their reach and
competence, and in all others by representatives, chosen immediately, and
removable by themselves, constitutes the essence of a REPUBLIC." --
Jefferson, letter to Dupont de Nemours, 1816


Keep those handy. They may help you look like less of a butthead at some
time in the future.

--
Ed Huntress


your post made me think i wish we had like 6 public television stations
instead of only one. my first thought was "why do we only have one public
television station and why in the world are they constantly struggling to
survive?!" and then i was like "oh, because people would bitch about having
to pay taxes to fund it." your post made me wish there'd be a public
television station running a college level political science course (and 5
others running other "citizenship" courses), like, on a loop, continuously.
if anyone wanted to they could stop by and watch, for as long as they could
stand it. run the loop constantly even if NOBODY watches it just so that
information could be out there freely available for anyone who might stumble
across it and take up an interest in it.
how come we don't have 6 public television stations in this country!? how
many other commercial channels are out there? 600?

b.w.

"William Wixon" wrote in message
...

"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
...



-snip-


Don't feel bad. I've seen this question come up online, and in personal
discussions, for over 20 years. None of the four-flushers who make
statements like yours can ever answer that question. That's because, once
the Founders' actual words are shown to them, along with a comment or two
from real historians, they realize that someone fed them a line and they
believed it, without taking the time to look for themselves.

Just so you have it firmly in your mind now, I'll refresh your memory
about the words of Madison and Jefferson on the subject:

"...A REPUBLIC, by which I mean a government in which the scheme of
representation takes place... -- Madison, Federalist 10

"It is, that in a DEMOCRACY, the people meet and exercise the government
in person; in a REPUBLIC, they assemble and administer it by their
representatives and agents." -- Madison, Federalist 14

"On this view of the import of the term REPUBLIC, instead of saying, as
has been said, -- that it may mean anything or nothing --, we may say
with truth and meaning, that governments are more or less REPUBLICAN, as
they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in
their composition..." -- Jefferson, letter to John Taylor, 1816

"Action by the citizens in person, in affairs within their reach and
competence, and in all others by representatives, chosen immediately, and
removable by themselves, constitutes the essence of a REPUBLIC." --
Jefferson, letter to Dupont de Nemours, 1816


Keep those handy. They may help you look like less of a butthead at some
time in the future.

--
Ed Huntress


your post made me think i wish we had like 6 public television stations
instead of only one. my first thought was "why do we only have one public
television station and why in the world are they constantly struggling to
survive?!" and then i was like "oh, because people would bitch about
having to pay taxes to fund it." your post made me wish there'd be a
public television station running a college level political science course
(and 5 others running other "citizenship" courses), like, on a loop,
continuously. if anyone wanted to they could stop by and watch, for as
long as they could stand it. run the loop constantly even if NOBODY
watches it just so that information could be out there freely available
for anyone who might stumble across it and take up an interest in it.
how come we don't have 6 public television stations in this country!? how
many other commercial channels are out there? 600?

b.w.

g I don't know how many there are. PBS has enough trouble just getting
funding for one -- plus the bigger network stations that get funding for
their own programs.

It would be nice to have more non-commercial stuff like Frontline and Nova,
but even some of the best commercial TV is Ok. I don't have time for it, so
I don't know. Wes watches a lot of C-Span. That's *really* going for
original material. Hats off to him.

Regarding how I come up with things like the Madison quotes and so on, it's
a long story. It has to do with once being humiliated into recognizing what
I needed to do by my college academic advisor, George Will. He had a way of
withering undergraduates into a kind of soft putty, and you wanted to flow
out the door; under it, if necessary. g

Anyway, it changed my life.

--
Ed Huntress