What does it mean to be American?
America was originally a British colony. Like most humans since the beginning of civilization, the colonists were under monarchy rule. Monarchy rule is where a small group, such as a family of people, have all the power, land and wealth. There was little if any middle class, and the majority of people were peasants and serfs. There was no upward mobility from these lower ranks, since your life was pre-defined at birth and leadership was based on birth right that did not have to be shared. This meant you best people were not your leaders except in rare cases. Instead birth right often lead to corruption because of incompetent people who had all the power by right of birth.
When America formed; Declaration of Independence, a new type of country was about to form. This new country was based on the people and by the people, instead of on large central government, led by royalty.
The Constitution outlined a way for humans to rule themselves, with government only there to make life easier, instead of more difficult. They installed checks and balances to minimize the power and over reach of the government. This was to avoid a regression back toward a monarchy form of government.
The American spirit was one of freedom and individuality, based on the open form of government, as well as due to the vast raw resources that the new land offered. Freedom of religion and speech was part of that model since religion offered a way for free people to self monitor their own behavior.
This new form of government, by the people and for the people, was designed to help its citizens rise from being only peasants and serfs; taxation without representation. It allowed a middle class to form, where even people from lowly starting places could rise to become its leader; Lincoln.
The end of Democracy is connected to those who seek to reverse this experiment and replace it with big government that takes away the rights of the citizens and destroys the middle class. This are the first steps back to monarchy rule over peasants and serfs, with incompetent and self serving leaders.
If you look at the two political parties, the one that prefers big government and like to make regulations and changes that hurt the middle class is against Democracy. The one who censors and presents misinformation are enemies of democracy. The Russian Collusion scam was against democracy. Those in power did not wish to share power with the peasants but only by their own version of bureaucratic birth right; Queen Hillary. The party that has a dual standard of justice and who leaders think they are above the law, seek to bring back the ways of the monarchies of old.
Monarchy and big government, versus a open society with a strong middle class with freedom and upward mobility is a good litmus test. Which party is pushing which way? The Covid pandemic and how each party behaved showed us a contrast of styles between central rule versus freedom, or monarchy versus an open society, where people are allowed to make choices instead forced to conform.
Social spending is good, if the end result is to support freedom leading to self sufficiency. If social spending creates generations of dependency, this limits mobility and one becomes a peasant or serf to a monarch. We should help people to help themselves so they can become part of the middle class, so they are free from the thumb of big government. That is how you maintain democracy. To maintain Democracy we need to shrink government, so central power is limited, to just what the framers wanted.
Deficit spending goes against democracy since it harms the middle class by making their taxes worth less, since the present has to pay for the incompetence of boneheads of the past. Teaching students to be open thinkers is good for democracy while indoctrination is the way to monarchies.
