Understanding democracy

Regarding the July 19 editorial, "Democracy demands participation," this is true, but incomplete. Democracy is the "divide and conquer" strategy of America's elite.

I have never quite understood why so many newspaper editors extol democracy rather than the concept of republicanism. Article IV, section 4 of the Constitution reads: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government."

And the Federalist Papers uniformly denigrate democracy as a form of government to be avoided if at all possible. Yet we hear bipartisan cries to "Get out the vote."

Notice that bipartisan does not mean a coalition of liberal and conservative groups, but rather bipartisan means a liberal coalition of Republicans and Democrats.

Bipartisan groups don't really care which way you vote. They care only that you do vote because the more often you vote, the more lines that you necessarily draw in the sand, lines that separate you politically from the other decent people who generally share your fundamental values. The more lines there are in the sand, the easier it is to resurrect old controversies and thus to prevent the formation of any viable coalition that is sufficiently strong to challenge the ruling elitists.

See, it's simple. Vote less. Think more.

Our founders had another approach as well. They expected that the worst men would compete for public office. The founders' view? "Don't worry about the men; bind them down with the chains of the Constitution." Ah, but that approach requires that you make use of the republican nature of our government, not its superficial democratic aspects. William O. Felsman Woodland Hills