Okay, I have a date here with Armando a half hour from now to conduct the long threatened "What is democracy?" debate.
The roots of this discussion occured right here on the Daily Kos, mainly in our discussions over the upcoming August 15 referendum in Venezuela in which Armando takes issue with my characterizations of Venezuelan democracy as more authentic and advanced as that of the United States. We soon both realized that while we agree on some basic things we have different perceptions of "democracy" and have talked and talked and talked about maybe someday debating them to try and see what those differences really are, or whether they are really differences.
As my first salvo and demonstration that democracy belongs to the majority that gets up earlier in the morning and works harder for what it wants, I'm jumping in 25 minutes before our High Noon duel to throw the gauntlet down to our esteemed colleage Armando, and adding a poll to increase the stakes.
So, Armando, what is democracy?