Two! Two! Two QOTD's in one! 02/21/2012

From page 97 of Niall Ferguson's "Civilization: The West And The Rest":

1. The real significance of the conquest and colonization of the Americas is that it was one of history's biggest natural experiments:  take two Western cultures, export them an impose them on a wide range of different peoples and lands--the British in the North, the Spanish and Portuguese in the South.  Then see which does better.
2. In reality, democracy was the capstone of an edifice that had as its foundation the rule of law--to be precise, the sanctity of individual freedom and the security of property rights, ensured by representative, constitutional government.

It's not enough to simply count hands in the air, call it democracy, and proclaim it good. Snarky remarks about the average modern revolution resulting in "One man, one vote, one time" before devolving into a bloody kleptocracy are all well and good, but they have a point. 

A point which our current political "leaders" would do well to study up on when they speak of the Constitution being a "living document", or deriding the idea that American Exceptionalism is some kind of conservative shibboleth.

Yes, Your Imperial Majesty, I'm looking at you.