I put forward that our stability comes from a few areas:
- Economic prosperity
- Checks on pure democracy, and the tyranny of the majority
- Checks on the power of the national government, the union of the states
- Strong protections for the right of individuals over the rights of groups
Now what is the trend over the last 100+ years. It is to undermine 2-4. The 17th amendment, for example, was a big blow to states power and a step in the direction of direct democracy. The supremacy of the Supreme Court. Some of the biggest cultural changes have come not through the representatives of the poeple in the state and federal level, but from judicial fiat. The rights of individuals have been in decline for a long time. From the various environmental protection acts that destroy private property rights, to the Patriot Act and other laws that destroy due process and privacy, to the ever increasing amount of regulation over our choices (Obamacare, regulation in general, the federal register has grown from 2,600+ pages to 76,000+ pages in less than 90 years) it has been a steady march to putting the rights of the group above the rights of the individual.