Who will defend democracy?

From Alternet:

Today's GOP: Worst Political Party Since the Civil War
 The last time things got this bad was about 150 years ago -- and we needed a Civil War to resolve it.

Democracy is a weak thing, it needs to be continuously maintained and defended. I have been saying for months now that the reason republicans get away with the utter bullshit they have been pulling for much of my lifetime is that there is no king or other force powerful enough to make the kids play fair. That force is us, all of us. We are the guardians of a liberal, democratic society that can defend everyone's rights. Rachel Maddow can say that, in a nutshell, here's the thing about rights, they aren't supposed to be voted on, that is why they are rights. Many moons ago the conservative intellectual and poet Peter Viereck said something similar. Viereck said that the Bill of Rights was essentially a conservative and aristocratic document that elites could use to defend minorities from the tyranny of the majority. He put it much more eloquently than that but I am paraphrasing. The point is, simply writing something down does not guarantee it. The constitution was just a piece of paper to george w. bush, it is up to us to keep our rights and constrain the vile desires of imperialists like bushco.

I will let you read the article from Martin Longman on your own, it is really great. The problem with his subtitle is that the Civil War really didn't solve the core of the problem. Sure, it got rid of slavery, established the United States as a singular and as a powerful nation. But the attitude of might makes right did not disappear. I invite you to do some research of your own on the Civil War and its aftermath but will offer some generalizations from my own research. Southerners never let it go, they never felt defeat or shame or remorse for what they had done. The only resolution was that the South was largely marginalized for generations after the war. The attitude of righteous intransigence has never been extinguished, and unfortunately has spread to teabaggers and fundamentalists all over the country today. Anti-intellectualism, belief in their own superiority, viewing the federal government as an enemy or occupying force. This attitude has had such perseverance in our society, and it has now completely infected an entire political party.

There is no king, there is no Uncle Sam. He is us, and we must shout it loudly and truthfully that this bullshit will not stand. The intransigent attitude of selfishness must end. A million voices speaking the truth Longman has written, a million more writing of these truths can shrink the shameless intransigents back down to the same shrivelled size of their black hearts and cast them out into the wilderness again.