"A true democracy is two wolves and a lamb sitting down to vote on what's for dinner." (attributed to Ben Franklin but actually probably someone else.?)

After the constitution was voted in the continental congress someone is reputed to have asked Ben Franklin what kind of government the new document installed. He is said to have answered, "A republic madam, if you can keep it."

The Greeks were good at Democracy, but only the "nobles" were allowed to vote in their assemblies. The early Romans had a Republic, but the Senators were mostly the nobility, serving for life. Both systems crashed and burned after 500 or 600 years.

France went back and forth between Monarchy, Republic and Dictatorship until they finally threw out the King and created a parliamentary republic along the British model, (altho they'll never admit to taking something from the British.)

Because of the various sizes and populations of our colonies - later States - we had to come up with a compromise in the legislature and the means of electing Senators. That was the Upper house with 2 members per state, and the lower house comprised of a proportionately elected membership. Its why Rhode Island and Delaware have more Senators than Congressmen (although in Delaware they are interchangeable.)

Originally, Senators were appointed by the state's governor and were to function something like the old House of Lords in England, but along the way the "democrats" wanted more popular election of the Congress so they changed the Senatorial process.

The Electoral College was supposed to balance the scales between the big and small colonies. In 1800, New York and Virginia could easily sway the popular vote, so they gave every state a piece of the action. FWIW - there is a move afoot in Democratic Party controlled states to pass a law assigning ALL of a state's electoral votes to the winner of the NATIONAL vote count!

Now that would really make it easy for the Acorn types - they only would have to produce a large number of votes in the cities to effect the Electoral College - and they'd only have to cheat in maybe 10 places, a lot easier than having to work on 100 cities.

2012 is going to be the election from hell - AND it could be the last chance to prove Franklin wrong.

We have a Republic, madam, but can we keep it?

rsl