John Locke would be rolling in his grave....

The social contract demands consent. The powerful must surrender some of their sovereignty while the weak in order to gain security must surrender a certain amount of their freedom. The social compact is the foundation of civilization and a nation of laws. This democratic cornerstone of the United States of America is under assault.

Democracy can only survive if there is consent. The parameters of democratic rule is based on checks and balances that keeps all branches of the United States Government in balance between majority and minority. It is a mechanism that has its genesis in Ancient Athenian Democracy to the Roman Republic to Montesquieu and Locke. Unless politicians agree to work within these mechanisms instead of devouring and circumventing them, the democracy in America is doomed.

In no uncertain terms, when the Filibuster in the United States Senate and the lifetime appointment of US Supreme Court Justices are removed from the lexicon of our democracy, the democracy itself will have been removed from our lives as well.

Democracy is a fragile gift for humanity. It exemplifies all that we are and all that we can be. If we usurp its basic tenets in the name of power politics, we will have destroyed the very essence of what civil government and the social contract are meant to be.