What was America founded on?

and then some - dont know and dont care
United States
March 8, 2009 8:25pm CST
Do you think America is Democracy or Republic? And why do you think that? What was those who came before hoping to accomplish with this land? Any thoughts?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
9 Mar 09
I cringe when ever I hear people refer to this country as a democrocy. We are a federal republic of 50 democratic states.
1 person likes this
• United States
9 Mar 09
The original founders of the country came to this land to excape religious percicustion. It is hard to say what they wanted the country to be, but the one thing that they wanted was freedom of religion (which if you ever read the constitution, you see that this didn't happen). The country is a republic, for better or for worse. I think they wanted to live without fearing punishment for their own religious beliefs. And, for the most part this ended up in the constitution. America is not a Democracy like we would like to believe, the have the right to vote, but for the most part we don't decide who is running for office. Our elected officals are bought and sold on a daily bases, and we can't or won't do anything about it. Our country is run by people with money, and power (in that order), and the American people are content with this. If they weren't, then they would have revolted along time ago.
@vellibiz (297)
• United States
9 Mar 09
this country was founded by doctors,lawyers and farmers so its a republic.
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@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
9 Mar 09
The Constitution starts with "We the people" and states that the role of government is to be "establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity(future generations)". To me this means that the government should stay out of my life as much as possible. IF we look at the Bill of Rights one sees that 8 of the 10 Amendments deal with the right of the people. The last two Amendments deal with restrictions on the government. The 10 Amendments specifically states that those powers not given the federal government nor denied the states go to the states and/or the people. If you read the Declaration of Independence you will see the phrase "That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed" These statements from our founding documents clearly shows that the power was to rest with the people and not the government. The Constitution clearly limits the size and function of Federal Government. The founding father saw a bottom up type of government, not a top down as it seems like today. They felt that the states would be free to try different things and have different laws and if someone did not like the laws in one state they were free to move to another state. We are a Republic that has protections for the minorities.