I'm Worried About Our Great Republic

I'm worried about our great Republic for a couple of reasons. Let me go over them with you.

First, it seems that most of our citizens don't even realize that we have a Republic and not a Democracy. A democracy leads to "tyranny by the majority" while a republic is a "rule by law". In our Republic we have (or is that had?) the protection of the law and the courts. Lately courts seem to be willing to create laws but that's another topic. Our President is intent on creating democracies around the globe and we ourselves are eroding into a democracy. It's scary how easily so many people go from being uncomfortable about something to crying out for a new law to prohibit it creating a Nanny State. Seat belt laws come to mind. Colorado is poised to join the masses with a primary stop seat belt law. That is, the law will allow police to stop and ticket you for not wearing a seat belt. Currently, they have to have another reason to stop you and then can write up the lack seat belt usage as a secondary offense.

Second, I'm watching the Senate with Bush's judgicial nominees, the filibuster, and the "nuclear option". The Republicans are upset over the Democrats filibuster. Let me state my personal opinion - if the judge is qualified the Senate should aprove them. Right now, that would work in my favor and when Clinton was in office it would have been judges that I don't like but so be it. They are either qualified or they are not and that should be the only thing to determine their fitness for judgeship. There should not be a litmus test for judges.
So the Democrats should not be filibustering judges and the Republicans are going to fix that by changing the filibuster rules. You know that'll come back to haunt us. They should put the original rules back and force the folks in favor of the filibuster to keep talking and bring Senate business to a halt. This "we'll pretend someone's talking when they aren't so that we can continue with other business" is just wrong. It makes the filibuster too convenient. If the filibuster is not more important than other business then it should end of it's own accord.
The Republicans are going to change the rules so that a simple majority vote can end the filibuster. Seems to me like they've neutered the filibuster. If a simple majority can end a filibuster and then a simple majority pass legislation then what's the point of the filibuster?
Someday, the Democrats will have the majority again and the Republicans will not be happy that they can't filibuster either. The rules should not be changed.

Thirdly (and lastly), our own personal and national tolerance... Think back to the last Presidential election. I don't care if you voted Democrat, Republican, or other. What was your opinion of the other candidate. And, even more importantly, what was your opinion of people who voted for the other candidate? There was a large number of people that voted for Kerry because it was "anyone but W" and there were people that voted for Bush because Kerry was an idiot. But both sides were spewing vile hate towards each other.
Strong opinions are to be expected. Even as our Republic was being founded there were strong opinions. The Federalist Papers comes to mind. But I think that both side respected each other and allowed folks that they disagreed with the benefit that everyone was trying to do the best thing for our country. These days the opposition are "ignorant idiots". So much for tolerance, eh? Some so called prolifers murder abortionists and some so called environmentalists are willing to disregard property laws because they are personally offended. We won't last much longer if we keep this up.

What do you think?