The movement to save democracy from threats is too quick to overlook problems that have been present since the founding.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. The article's definitions are not "stilted"; that would be saying "ours is oldest, so it must be best"

Some features of the US process, such as the filibuster, are indeed still "democratic", though they do make the legislature sclerotic. But some (apportioning 2 senators to each state whatever the population, and the Electoral College) are clearly anti-democratic, while the influence of money is corrupt, as is the control of party politicians over districting.

If you aren't able to examine your own problems, you'll never fix them.

Bede, by the way, was Anglo-Saxon. He was talking about the reaction of the Britons to the new threat of the Anglo-Saxons, once the Roman legions had left. The Anglo-Saxons did indeed take control, in about a century (a fairly short space of time for those days), in most of Britain.