clipped from: www.thomhartmann.com   
How Rich is Too Rich For Democracy?

At what point does great wealth held in a few hands actually harm democracy, threatening to turn a democratic republic into an oligarchy?

Unfortunately, many Americans believe our nation was founded exclusively of, by, and for "rich white men," and that the Constitution had, as its primary purpose, the protection of the super-rich. They would have us believe that the Constitution's signers didn't really mean all that flowery talk about liberal democracy in a republican form of government.

But the signers didn't send other people's kids to war, as have two generations of the oligarchic Bush family. Many of the Founders themselves gave up everything, even risking (and losing) their lives, their life's savings, or losing their own homes and families to birth this nation.


The majority of the signers of the Constitution were actually acting against their own best economic interests