Theatrical Thursdays

As the time stamp shows, this post is coming a little late. I've been pouring through the news today in search of something of interest, something that I haven't already discussed, and I came up with zilch. Nada.

So, today I'm introducing my first weekly post..."Theatrical Thursdays." Thanks to the abundance of video on the world wide web, I hope to find one or two interesting videos to share with you, as well as a brief discussion of the content, or of something that was sparked therein.

Today's Video: Bill O'Reilly visits The View (otherwise: Clash of the Titans)

This is a relatively old video, but very interesting, especially considering the amount of vehement hatred that seems to pour from O'Donnell towards O'Reilly and back again.

In retrospect, this may be a more interesting video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHhA4FopuGo

Anyway.

I think I would like to propose a question for general debate:
What type of government is America?

I'm not exactly sure if anyone knows. I feel, every time I watch the news, that I'm really seeing episodes of "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader" or whatever it is, and the whole country is failing the test.

America, while founded on the ideals behind the government type of Democracy is not, in and of itself, a "Democracy." In fact, doing a search of America on websites such as Wikipedia or the like reveal that the words "Democracy" don't fall into our government type at all. Granted, in most middle school textbooks that I ran across growing up, America is firmly listed as a "Democratic-Republic," the truth is, we are a Federal Constitutional Republic.

America is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, but not in the mob mentality that true Democracies such as Athens experienced.

Perhaps it's fun to throw around the ideal of Democracy. Or we are the bright light of Democracy and therefore must bring it to the world. That just isn't the case.

For those who don't understand the difference, I'll attempt to briefly paraphrase:

Democracy--Government's actions are controlled entirely by the populace. Often times the government IS the populace. Everything is put to a vote. Majority wins.

Republic (closely tied to Representative Democracy, but not quite)--Government is ELECTED by the people, and serves based on their wishes, but is not directly controlled by the people. Their actions are controlled by a constitution that has been ratified by the people. This lessens the "mob" effect. This is how an unpopular president can serve for 4 years, or a war can go on without popular support. If we were a true Democracy, that wouldn't happen.

Now, I don't really want to discuss the merits of either governmental form, except to say that I think our founding fathers knew EXACTLY what they were doing when they formed a Republic and not a Democracy.

The real question is: does this matter now? Will it matter in the future? Is it IMPORTANT that we advertise ourselves as a "true Democracy" when that's an utter fallacy? And is it important that people like Rosie O'Donnell (and even Bill O'Reilly) announce to the world our "Democratic" status, when it's fairly far from the truth.

I don't know. You tell me.

And that's all for Theatrical Thursdays.

Told you it was random.

I think Friday will also become a weekly event (or bi-monthly, not sure), in which I take a look at important political or cultural figures in depth with my own view on them. Tomorrow: Rosie O'Donnell and Bill O'Reilly. Hey, why not.

So, see you then for "Friday's Faces"