US: Democracy or Republic?

[Declan McCullagh]

On Sun, Dec 10, 2000 at 05:12:23PM -0800, Steve Schear wrote:
> Quite.  And the specter of the Florida legislature selecting a new set of 
> electors are providing one of the best civics educations citizens young and 
> old have had this century.  Its really quite healthy to have the myth of 
> democracy we were all taught in grade school laid bare by the reality of a 
> conservative and plain reading of the Constitution by some of the best and 
> brightest.

Heh. For every Democrat (and perhaps some Republicans) who goes on TV
and proudly proclaims this perpetual election as a good thing because
it buttresses our civics knowledge, I want to ask: Why don't we
encourage the president, say, to commit a felony? The subsequent
prosecution and conviction would be fascinating to observe and would
*really* educate America's children.

Of course, I think the perpetual election (see perpetualelection.com)
is a good thing for entirely different reasons than those I give
above. See: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,40200,00.html

-Declan