I do not need lessons in this country's form of government. My father is a political scientist who taught Constitutional law at the Master's level. I receive daily reminders of what this country was, and what it is becoming.

The United States did not begin as a democracy; this was anathema to the Founders. It is either becoming one, or it is a plutocracy which maintains its power by maintaining the fiction of this country's being a democracy--defined as pandering to the masses, at which it is VERY good.

In either case, it is out of the control of the middle class and those who hold to the Constitution, which established a republic. Viz. the several states which are passing resolutions demanding the the Federal government return to the mandates of the Constitution.

R.

P.S.: Did anyone see the news item a few days ago in which a US court upheld the "right" of the police to use a taser to force a suspect to submit a DNA sample? Let me see--use of torture to coerce self implication in a crime . . . Didn't the freakin CONSTITUTION have something to say about that?

Republic, my ass.

"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."