Thanks for the reply. When reading your critique this old anecdote came to mind:
When Benjamin Franklin exited the Constitutional convention, he was asked by a woman, “Sir, what did you give us?”
Franklin replied, “A Republic ma’am, if you can keep it.”
In other words, Franklin, Madison, and all the others knew full well that what they created could be ruined. That if they wanted to build a nation based on freedom, they couldn’t avoid giving the people the freedom to screw it up. We also have the freedom, actually the duty, to always endeavor to set things right again. As it happens there is an interesting article today in the WaPo titled “The Case for a Federalism Amendment” by constitutional scholar RANDY E. BARNETT
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124044199838345461.html Its ideas like this that need to be considered. Let me know what you think.
I glanced at that amendment idea earlier. Don’t have time to look at it now. As for the “if you can keep it” thing, yeah, I always say the weakest link in the whole system is the People. Unfortunately.