Heather, I agreee with the fact it's done slow over time and not enough people are willing to nip it in the bud right now.
But there is always the hope that when it's time, those of us will rise to the occassion when things get bad enough.
As far as all this haggling about what the constitution is...or refering to some constitutional scholar to help us figure it all out...I laugh at such notions we would need any views from any scholars at all. The founding fathers had many documented writings on why they did what they did...those are the scholars that have the true meaning. All other opinions are just opinions except the authors themselves.
We have a republic...it was made that way so it would take much longer for the people to vote their own rights away...it can still be done as you point out Heather, but it just takes longer. If we lived in a total democracy we would have lost all freedoms long ago.
No where is it written that the majority of people are right...or moral at any given time...so another thing that gets my goat is hearing about how the majority feels, when that in itself has nothing to do with if something is right, moral, or in the best interest of this country.
It is entirely possible for the majority of people to become greedy, immoral, and self centered. It has already happened in the large cities.
In the end...it will all boil down to what we are willing to do if it gets bad enough, and if we have the courage that all of the people had that signed the Declaration of Independence. The people that put their name on that piece of paper were marked forever as rebels to be hanged, if caught. The penaly for treason was death or dismemberment back then I think.
We don't need constitutional scholars. The only reason there is a such thing as a consitutional scholar is because some people do not agree with the founding fathers or what they already wrote...LOL! so there ya go.....
keep the faith....there are many of us out here that do not want to be a republican, or a democrat, and just vote for the one who does the least amount of damage to some things...or as GB put it...you vote against someone instead of for someone...which is a pretty good way to put it too.
I think there is a large amount of people out there that think like us, that we do not hear from...the media will only let you know so much.