<DIV>there is a give and take .... sometimes the people are right sometimes they are wrong....I believe that there should be a drag on popular actions to make sure the mob does not win out....that was the original purpose behind the Senate....to the extent that one has a more enlightened populace, the more likely it will choose enlightened representatives, in which case we are all happy...however, to the extent that people can be political neaderthals, I am pretty happy with the filibuster... </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Today's body politic is a complicated mix...in part, people's ideas of reality are distorted by an amnipresent corporate media (thanks to the First Amendment); in part, ole fashioned religion still captures the hearts and minds of many Americans (I guess we have the First Amendment to thanks for that, too)...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>This is a debate that will rage on long after this list has gone the way of the dodo, is a centralized decision maker better or worse than a more diffuse decision maker....it depends on which is captured and by whom....now that the Right has the Federal gov't, the people will have to do the heavy lifting...back in the sixties, it was a relatively small number of northern legislators and "librul" judges that began to set African-Americans politically free....hell, people in the South still can't get rid of racist flags and other symbols of a past well deserving a final fucking death.  <BR><BR><B><I>Doug Henwood <dhenwood@panix.com></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">eric dorkin wrote:<BR><BR>>Help me out here....given that most americans support(ed) the war, <BR>>supported much of the Cold War....supported and maintained an <BR>>apartheid South...tell me why I should long for democracy? that is <BR>>not to say that I am anti-democratic, but why should I worship at <BR>>the alter of public opinion?<BR><BR>So which altar do you want to worship at instead? Rule by liberal <BR>judges? The constitutional structure did a lot to create the body <BR>politic you're kvetching about.<BR><BR>Doug<BR>___________________________________<BR>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</BLOCKQUOTE><p><br><hr size=1>Do you Yahoo!?<br> <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/search/mailsig/*http://search.yahoo.com">The New Yahoo! Search</a> - Faster. Easier. Bingo.