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Learn the benefits of living in a republic

I am responding to the Nov. 11 letter to the editor titled, "Government needs work, but not broken," submitted by a student at Palatine High School. I am happy to see a young person taking an interest in our government.

Several times in the letter he refers to our government as a democracy. Contrary to popular opinion, America is a republic, not a democracy. The distinguishing feature of a democracy is that the majority rules. The individual, and any group of individuals composing any minority, have no protection against the unlimited power of the majority. This is a grave danger.

Thomas Jefferson warned, "A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51 percent of the people may take away the rights of the other 49 percent." History shows that democracies turn into anarchy, which soon leads to tyranny.

A republic, on the other hand, has a very different purpose and an entirely different form of government. Its purpose is to control the majority, primarily to protect the individual's God-given, unalienable rights and therefore for the protection of the rights of the minority, and the liberties of people. Our republic is based on the rule of law as stated in the Constitution and foreshadowed by the Declaration of Independence. To minimize the chance that any one group in our government becoming too powerful, the framers wisely separated power into three distinct branches: Executive, Legislative and Judicial.

Let's all spend some time relearning the benefits of our republican form of government, which protects our liberties through the rule of law.

Ron Mammarella

Palatine

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