gekkogecko,

You may, of course, be correct, time will tell, but as the number of representative democracies has grown since that document first saw light, and continues to grow to the present, including the first ever contested Egyptian presidential election held this last Wednesday, I’d guess that reality has been more than a little unkind to those who have held different opinions.

Over the last 229 years, the ideals found in this document of human liberation have weathered many internal crises, and have withstood the intellectual competition of Monarchy, Fascism, Communism, and also runs like Theocracy.

Yes, I have read the Articles of Confederation, which became the ruling document of the nation after they were ratified by the last of the 13 American states, Maryland, in 1781, and am also aware why they were superseded by the current Constitution of the United States.

For what it is worth, the principle problem with the Articles was that Congress was too severely limited in its powers. It could not raise money by collecting taxes; it had no control over foreign commerce; it could pass laws but could not force the states to comply with them. The central government thus constituted was dependent on the willingness of the various states to carry out its measures, and often the states refused to cooperate. Another crippling difficulty was that the articles were virtually impossible to amend, so problems could not be corrected.

In the words of George Washington, the government created by the Articles of the Confederation was "little more than the shadow without the substance".

Note also that the preamble of the U.S. Constitution reads “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

In both the Declaration and the Constitution People come before the State.

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Eudaimonia