Not a theocrat, but a (small “r”) republican

A reader is disappointed by my posts on Terri Schiavo:

And here all along I thought you were a frustrated conservative, such as I, when all the time you were just another theocrat. What a waste!

My reply:

Leaving aside your insulting tone, you don’t understand me at all. My appeal is to republican government, not to theocracy. Republican government means that power is not located in one body or person but is distributed among many parts and levels of the state, the executive, the legislative, the judicial, and so on, all of which represent the community in different ways. There is nothing in the federal Constitution (or, I believe, in the Florida constitution) that says that courts have the final say on whether a law is constitutional or not. This is a liberal idea that we have all thoughtlessly acceded to. The executive and legislative branches also have their responsibility to determine whether a law is constitutional. The same executive resistance to an unjustifiable court decision that I’m urging here could be made in a case having no religious dimension.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 25, 2005 05:08 PM | Send