Despite all the blather about democracy, we did not invent it, do not support it and have, during the recent administration, become less democratic than we were before.
We are and always have been too large a country for a true democracy. That's why the Founding Fathers created a republic. In a true democracy, the people would decide practically all the issues. In a republic, the people delegate that power to elected representatives who serve for a fixed term.
A republic is a good form of government provided the people pay attention, fairly judge the performance of their elected officials and boot 'em out of office when they don't cut the mustard.Once elected, most politicians make a full time career of getting re-elected and the voters continually oblige. Ted Kennedy and Robert Byrd - to name only two - should have been ejected long ago but it appears that both will draw their last breath in the Senate. When the voters are unwilling to "throw the bums out", the bums get more entrenched and more powerful.
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