[Dr.Hilarious]

Interesting, though a little too rigid for me. But you bring up interesting points, and in that spirit I want to ask everyone here a question.

I often find myself getting in that debate with folks about how we don't live in a democracy but a constitutional republic. Does anyone have a pithy, ACCURATE, one-liner I can keep handy so I don't get into it with these folks, but still make my point? I'm getting bored saying "A constitutional republic means we have a set of laws we live by, a democracy is mob rule." It's not quite accurate and I need something a little more dead-on.

[Just another Joe]

In our case a constitutional republic is government where certain rights of individuals are guaranteed by the constitution and cannot be taken away by anything but 3/4 vote. Not a simple majority, which is democracy.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Democracy is, as P.J. O'Rourke (IIRC) put it, two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.

In a constitutional republic, the sheep is off the menu, no matter what the wolves want.

To put it another way, in a constitutional republic, the majority cannot vote to have the minority boiled in oil, no matter how well the idea is polling.

[Irontank]

"[I] never understood [what a republican government was and] I believe no other man ever did or ever will."
---John Adams