The above comment was made by a self-described "liberal" just the other day. Now, that an American citizen would utter such a statement at all should give every freedom loving person in the country chills. But he is not alone. Where once you would have heard such talk only in university classrooms, America's socialists are "coming out of the closet." Perhaps emboldened by the election of  "one of their own" to the American Presidency, they are suddenly popping up everywhere.

And they are not just cheering Obama from the sidelines - they are influencing policy. From his cabinet to his growing army of unelected "czars," a list of Obama's closest advisers reads like a who's-who of the American Communist Party - virtually all of them committed to turning the United States into a socialist state.

But that pesky old Constitution keeps getting in their way.

Obama himself has stated on the record that he finds the Constitution "flawed" because it does not allow for the "redistribution of wealth" and makes it more difficult to implement what he calls "social justice" programs. For those unfamiliar with the term, "social justice" is barely disguised liberal code for "using the force of government to confiscate the income of people who are smarter, harder working, and more ambitious than their fellow countrymen, and then 'redistribute' it to the stupid, the lazy, and the indolent" - in other words, taking your hard-earned money and giving it to people who, in simpler and more honest times, were called bums.

The American Left has always lamented the fact that the United States is not a "pure" democracy - they seem to forget the record of other such "pure democracies" around the world. Venezuela, currently under the thumb of dictator Hugo Chavez, is such a "democracy" - Chavez was, after all, duly elected by "the popular vote."

Iran, too, is a "pure" democracy - it is also a 10th century Muslim oligarchy that executes young girls for holding hands with a boy, and is headed up by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, one of the original architects of the 1980 hostage crisis, but hey, why quibble over such minor details. After all, Ahmadinejad is a leader who was chosen by the people in a "democratic" election, wasn't he?

But America is not a democracy - it is a Constitutional, Democratic, Republic - and thank God it is. Because if we ever dismantle the structure of the richest, most successful nation in the history of the world, we risk becoming very much like a Venezuela, or, if the Left has their way, an American version of Iran - except that instead of the fanatical Muslim mullahs pulling the strings behind the scenes, we will have fanatical atheist socialists performing the same function - ensuring ideological "purity" among the masses (see: "Fairness Doctrine").

If you do not understand how crucial the Constitution is to your liberty, then you either never read it, or you need to read it again, carefully. Especially the Preamble. The Declaration of Independence is worth rereading every now and then, too. The American system of government, with its three branches and well thought out checks and balances, prevents the very kind of "mob rule" that is the hallmark of those "pure" democracies.

Even the concept of the electoral college performs a critical function - preventing the country from being ruled by only one or two states. As it is, the huge populations of New York and California exert an undue influence on national elections, not to mention policy. Without the electoral college, a socialist candidate could easily lose in EVERY STATE except California or New York, yet wind up as President.

But wouldn't all candidates have an equal chance of winning? No way. Because with the extreme concentration of Democrat voters in just those two "coast" states, along with the lop-sided Democrat majorities in the major cities (due to the increasing number of social program recipients, as well as the army of government employees who also depend on a check from the state), using the so-called popular vote alone would virtually guarantee that socialists (otherwise known as Democrats) would have lifetime employment.

Why do you think that it is the Left in America that wants so desperately to eliminate the Electoral College and replace it with a simple popular vote?

So, be thankful that we have the system we have, and be wary of those who attempt to seduce you into scrapping it, especially when they do so with promises of government goodies like "free" healthcare - the purpose of getting more and more Americans dependent on the government is simply to guarantee that a majority of the public votes to "keep the checks coming."  But such promises of "free stuff" always come with a (very expensive) price tag, not only in dollars, but in terms of the loss of your precious freedoms.