All of this takes patience, literacy, and logical thought, a trinity rarely found these days, especially (in general, but not exclusively) among the victims of public education. A society that depends on 15-30 second “sound bites” as the basis for its political discourse will reap exactly the harvest of weeds it has planted.

The ideas behind our republic were intended to correct the problems with previous democracies (like Rome) which ultimately failed. The constitution is our charter and states primarily what the government may not do (hence the term negative liberties), which allows citizens to vote (as in democracy) but within confines that ensure everyone’s liberty.

This is precisely why I get such a sickening feeling when I hear Obama lament the “negative liberties” established by the founders and how to go about “breaking free” from them in order to “do what government must do on our behalf”.

I wrote a while back about the proper definition of rights and how it is critical to maintain a republic in order to sufficiently protect those rights… but I agree 100%that more people need to understand this concept.

http://www.redstate.com/atlaspuked/2009/02/19/getting-back-to-fundamentals-to-understand-rights-is-to-understand-the-morality-of-capitalism/