No surprise here! Even in its heyday, American democracy was serious flawed. Remember the poll tax, the white-male-only elections, and the Jim Crow laws? But since 2000 what little there was has been going to hell in a handbasket. The situation worsened by leaps and bounds after 9/11, but the trend was already in place. In retrospect I only wish that Al Gore didn't cave in without a fight. The possibility of civil war makes me shudder, but I am even more frightened by what we know was the alternative. Better that Amercican democracy go out with a bang than with a whimper!