Democracy rarely gets things right the first time around. Elected leaders tend to underestimate the intelligence and overestimate the ignorance (NOT the same thing) of their electors. The nice thing about democracy, though, is that it allows mistakes to be corrected.

So for every Alien and Sedition Act, every internment of Japanese Americans, for every Bay of Pigs invasion there are things like the Bill of Rights, the Marbury v. Madison decision (which explicitly set forth the doctrine of separation of powers and declared the Supreme Court the final arbiter of the Constitution) and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld.

Oh, yeah, and last week the Senate (by one vote) decided to not send a Constitutional Amendment which would allow the banning of flag burning (read that twice if you don't get it the first time) to the states for ratification.

For the record: As much as I am an admirer of Hillary Clinton (and I'm a big one), her co-sponsorship of that amendment will prevent me from voting from her unless she is facing a fellow co-sponsor (like, say, John McCain--though I might vote for McCain, depending on how the campaign goes).

In short, democracy is more likely to get things right in the end. Or, at the very least, somewhere down the line. Dictators are less likely to admit mistakes. In fact, if you can name a dictator (or monarch or emperor) who ever admitted a mistake, then send the pertinent facts along to me at jon@aidabet.com. Absolute power means you never have to say you're sorry.

This is, by the way, why there is a United States of America. If King George III and the Parliament weren't so pig-headed about things like taxation and micromanaging the colonies in general, most likely the United States would be a part of the commonwealth of nations. We might even field competitive soccer, cricket and rugby teams in international competition. Well, the soccer team is (somewhat) competitive. The best American cricket players are Indian. And the best American rugby players drink almost as much beer as I do.

But we don't swear loyalty to the Queen (or King), and we play baseball and the other kind of football (which is different from the Australian kind of football). And that's cool--though I must admit to having something of a fetish for a nicely-bowled lbw.

It's true that I felt better about America after last week's Supreme Court decision that essentially said we cannot try terrorists using evidence procured by torture. I mean, I thought that went without saying. I am sympathetic to arguments that we might need to torture certain terrorist leaders in order to gain important information...but don't read my sympathy to say I agree with that notion. I believe that intelligent and moral people can disagree on this matter. But to sentence someone to death on the basis of hearsay or evidence procured by torture? In the words of Darkman--echoed in recent novels by both Carl Hiassen and Richard Russo--"You've gotta be shitting me."

Or, in the words of Jon Worley, "No fucking way."

Tortured confessions don't mean shit. Literally. Not worth the stream of bird excrement that flew through the window of my car (and spectacularly spattered both my shirt and shorts) a few weeks ago. In fact, I think most any information obtained by torture is similarly worthless. But I admit that I am not privy to all the evidence on this subject. I might be wrong.

Ah, the influence of democracy rears its ugly head. I might, indeed, be wrong.

Some members of Congress are already jumping on the demagoguery train and crafting legislation that would allow alleged terrorists (can we not agree on the presumption of innocence?) to, indeed, be convicted without facing their accusers or even know exactly what the charges are against them. Let them. I have a feeling democracy will catch up to them in the end.

Like most folks, Americans tend to play follow the leader. But when it becomes apparent that the leader in question is headed in a bad direction, the people will choose a different path. This is a gradual process, but an inevitable one. Despite what many politicians and pundits think, the American people are not stupid. Sometimes the truth has to hit them over the head--a few times, even--but when it does, things begin to change for the better. And they are, if only slowly.

America isn't perfect. Neither is democracy. But it's always good to watch as they become, in the words of the Preamble to the Constitution, even slightly more perfect.

Jon Worley isn't perfect, either.