G from S asked,

'WE THE PEOPLE' ARE SUPPOSE TO Be the GOVERNMENT.....RIGHT??????

Uncle DaveO replied:

No, wrong.

To which G from S replied:

Did you read any further, oh bright one. 'Government OF, FOR, AND BY.

"Government OF" is a cognate of "management of a campaign". In this sense, you could say that an equestrian governs his horse.

"Government FOR" is a statement of the target of the benefits, that the object of government is to benefit the people.

"Government BY", however (despite Lincoln's great oratory, which is not the Constitution) is a misnomer. Under the Constitution, the United States is a republic, not a democracy, popular as that word is. The United States is not, never has been, and was never intended to be a democracy, where the people actually governed. "Democracy" is a form of governance appropriate to say a small town, where decisions are made at a town meeting, on vote of the actual citizens. It's not at all a practical form for (probably) even a county government, and certainly not a State.

"The government" refers to that set of chosen or elected officers and civil servants which creates and carries out the administration of the laws, in order to govern the people. As one might say that the CEO, CFO, board of directors, and officers of a business provide (as opposed to "are") the management "of" a business, "for" the stockholders, at least in theory.

Dave Oesterreich