Do we live in a democracy or a republic and what does that have to do with Sherman Avenue?

Outside of the county elections office is a sign that reads in part, "Gatekeepers of Democracy." Sometimes we get complaints that "Hey, don't you know America is a republic, not a democracy?" I explain that yes we certainly do know that America is a republic. That is our form of government, however democracy is the process we use for picking our elected representatives. (My personal opinion is that democracy sounds too close to democrat and therefore makes a lot of people uncomfortable even though you never hear that our goal is to spread republics around Iraq and the rest of the world).

As an individual citizen I can embrace and get kind of excited about the idea of getting to vote on hot topics like closing part of Sherman Avenue, having hydroplane races on the lake, banning thong bikinis, etc., etc. Maybe I would even like to vote on more mundane topics like planning and zoning issues or whether to charge for parking on downtown streets. Of course if you really wanted to take this to the extreme, why not hook up interactive devices so that we can just do an instant vote while watching city council or even CSPAN? Maybe we could just cut out the middleman (elected officials) and save $$ while we are at it!

But as a current county elected official and former city council and school board member, I have to question this idea. Our form of government is in fact a representative form of government. We have the responsibility to vote for our officials and then it is their job and responsibility to study the issues, listen to the public, and then make these important decisions on our behalf. Of course if we don't like the kind of decisions they are making then it is the job of citizens to decide if they want to "re-hire" that official in the next election.

Dan English

p.s. For those who really, really want to get to vote on all these decisions, you too can run for office. It's great, it's America!

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