Originally Posted by Kestrel

That's incorrect; this country has it's basis in the individual. Democracy as we know it comes from Enlightenment thinking, which emphasized the individual over the state: government exists through consent of the governed, and the sole purpose of government is to protect the rights of the individual. The Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, all refer to how all men (ie each person) are endowed with inalienable rights. The ideas behind voting, free speech is that an individual can participate in government. The value of individual is the basis for our democracy.

It's a fine line we walk: our country would be much safer and crime free if it were a dictatorship like Singapore or Kuwait or UAE. Sure, you'd have no rights (including right to free speech, right to bear arms, etc.), but you can bet there would be next to no crime and terrorist would have a much more difficult time staging attacks. And our government, while not a dictatorship, has, since the days of the Revolutionary War, grown much larger and more powerful and encompassing than our forefathers ever imagined. And it only keeps getting bigger. And the ACLU is one of the groups that keeps it from growing the wrong way. Sure, sometimes they go a little overboard, but without them, the government would, whether on purpose or on accident, start having its way with the people.