Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

:)

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Actually, we don't have a Democracy and never have. In a (True)Democracy, every voter votes on everything. We have a Republic*/Representative Democracy in which all the voters elect representatives to a legislature to vote on things in their name.

And yes, I taught Government and the Constitution in addition to US & World History and Geography at grade levels from 7 to 12 in my 34 years teaching in Los Angeles Unified School District.

*Just after the Constitutional Convention at the start of the Ratification process "-Benjamin Franklin's response to Elizabeth Willing Powel's question: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" = “A republic, if you can keep it.”

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/constitutionalconvention-september17.htm#:~:text=%2D%2DBenjamin%20Franklin's%20response%20to,a%20republic%20or%20a%20monarchy%3F%22

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

Well the point is the words spoken by Joe Biden in the title. Those were Biden’s words, “choose freedom over democracy” was a gaffe.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Yeah I saw that cut on the news.
Even though I am a conservative I feel sorry for Biden. He is at the stage of aging where sometimes he is OK and sometimes he isn't. I believe it is better to be all OK or all not OK. Then people know how to interact with you.

When I was a little kid there was a guy down the street from my Great Grandfather's place who was like that, and gradually got worse, he was only in his mid 30's when I got old enough to remember him and it was caused by a head wound in WW2. Most days he just sit in a rocking chair on the front porch in bib overalls and as we rode our bikes by on good days he would talk to us. On bad ones, I don't think he even noticed us ride by. The younger members of his family and their friends did their homework on the porch to keep him company and watch him. On his really good days he was almost a tutor to them.

My Great Grandfather on the other hand was OK until less than 2 years before he passed at almost 92. Kept a 2 acre garden with hand tools, raised a variety of strawberries that had people who made homemade jams and jelly driving from 50 miles away to buy. His eyes were getting bad so he switched from newspapers to TV & radio in his late 80s. And between 16 when he broke a bone and 65 when he had a checkup for Soc Security then to 89 when he developed a heart condition he never saw a doctor in his life.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

I just looked it up to refresh my memory. In Athens citizens were males, born in Athens, who completed their military training successfully so they could be called up in case of war.
Over a few centuries this averaged from 10% to 20% of the total population. Athens also had slaves at the other end of the social scale. But treated them much better than most slaves in history. Even educating some and making them managers etc. in family businesses. The Spartans used to complain that they couldn't tell the difference between slaves and lower class citizens in Athens.