When it comes to democratic self-governance, it seems a lot of Americans are deeply anti-American

By Michael J.W. Stickings

From Dan Amira at Daily Intel:

For most of us, the idea that "governments derive their only just powers from the consent of the governed," a central tenet of the Declaration of Independence (a.k.a., the reason you're not working tomorrow), is taken as a given. But a surprisingly large contingent of Americans — 13 percent, according to Rasmussen — disagrees with that philosophy, apparently preferring tyrannical governments which wield power over their people through terror and violence. They must be very disappointed by all those elections we're having all the time! Another 17 percent are "undecided," which probably just means they couldn't follow the question and/or zoned out.

Actually, it's likely that most of those 13 percent think that governments derive their very legitimacy from God -- you know, the residue of that whole "Divine Right of Kings" nonsense that was big way back when and still finds a home among theocratic conservatives, and particularly with the American Taliban that is so powerful in the Republican Party.

(And by God, of course, I mean "God.")

Yes, that would be the party with all those self-defined "patriots" who talk up the Founders, including those who thought the Declaration was a truly revolutionary document (which is was) inbued with the spirit of the Enlightenment, as do-no-wrong demigods -- yes, those self-appointed defenders of what they think is the American Way but is actually the opposite.

Actually, I'm surprised the number isn't larger. There are a lot of born-again theocrats out there, and a lot of ignorance all throughout America. But perhaps a lot of respondents, more than 17 percent, found the question a tad too taxing for their mushy minds.

Whatever the case, the Founders, who possessed not just a profound understanding of history but a firm commitment to the Enlightenment and the possibility of human progress, would likely be rather disappointed that so many Americans, well over two centuries after they launched their revolution of democratic governance, don't understand what they did -- nor what America truly means.