You raise a good point in just a sentence, Lee. The Greeks' real innovation wasn't democracy--counting noses to discover the prevailing opinion is so easy even a caveman could do it, and I'm sure they did. It's a quintessentially social primate thing to do.

The Greek innovation is, to my mind, infinitely more subtle and profound: Equality before the law. "Isonomia", meaning literally "my name is just as good as yours when we go before the judge".

The Romans refined it further in the very early days of the Republic, when they declared that there would be only one body of law. Rich men could no longer make their own laws and hire the private armies to enforce them.

I think that the fundamental danger facing America these days is losing sight of isonomia. Somebody ought to whisper the word to the OWS protesters so they can finally put a name to what's missing from America these days.

I brought up the "Speech or Debate" clause as a necessary exception to isonomia, to protect separation of powers. But it's one of those exceptions that literally proves the rule: It takes a threat as serious as destruction of our system of government to justify carving out even that one little exception to isonomia.

Bad things generally happen when The People get a wild hair and start trying to use the Constitution as a weapon against some despised group. Even when that group is ourselves, as was the case with Prohibition; or a group that so richly deserves it like our political class. That's abuse of the Constitution and we always lose in the long run.