[varina davis]

History clearly shows the fundamental flaws of the victors. What a shame we'll never know how the Confederate system would have developed.

Since organizing Southerners is akin to herding cats (a good thing), getting a system together wouldn't have been easy. But all the right ingredients were there, honor, loyalty and statesmen.

[muleboy]

Many of the ingredients were there, with a few crippling exceptions. And thus another promising experiment in free-market based, representative government was snuffed out in it's crib.

What a shame. The more 'experiments' there are, the more competition of ideas, the more combinations in balance of power, the more chances for one to hit upon an idea that works well, that can be copied by the others.

But, as always, hubris-filled usurpers cannot stand to share power and are masters of wrapping their greedy manifestations in cloaks of "morality", "security", and "peace".