Mr. Ken Wheatcroft-Pardue wrote in the June 1st "Star Telegram" editorial "Constitutional Do-over", that the U.S. Constitution is archaic and should be modernized because it is not conducive to a "modern democracy". He cites the U.S. Senate as being undemocratically designed and grossly unrepresentative of the citizenry. What Mr. Pardue fails to note is that the U.S. Constitution was never written for, nor was the U.S. system of government ever intended to be a "democracy", but rather, a "representative republic". Many of the founding fathers feared creating a "democracy".

The primary difference between a democracy and a republic is who is sovereign. In a republic, sovereign power is held by "We the People" individually such that each individual is "endowed by his creator with inalienable rights". These rights can never be taken away by majority vote. The sole purpose of a republican government is to "secure those individual rights". In a democracy, sovereign power is invested collectively only in the group as a whole. Therefore, in a democracy, the majority can vote to confiscate your property or even kill you and you have no "inalienable right" to life or anything else for that matter, except to vote.

I cringe when I hear our leaders discuss exporting "democracy" to Iraq and other developing nations. What they should be doing is ensuring the citizens of these nations a "republican form of government", which our Constitution guarantees the citizens of all new states admitted to the Union.

I would also like to point out that the U.S. Senate was not established to democratically represent individuals (the U.S. House serves that purpose), but rather to equally represent the States. U.S. Senators were originally elected by the States' legislatures. Federal power was never intended to be wielded over individuals, but rather the federal powers enumerated in the Constitution mostly govern interstate relationships and relationships with foreign nations. This "grossly unequal" representation also ensured that no group of large cities in a couple of states could form a majority and dominate the rest of the country, as was demonstrated in our last presidential election where candidate Gore took most of the coastal cities and candidate Bush took most of rest of the country.

While it is true that we no longer wear white wigs, the principles and protections enshrined in our Constitution and the limits it places on our ever-burgeoning central government are timeless and are as important today if not more so than when they were written. Long live our Constitution!