Democracy is inefficient

I believe the Congress bashing we have been seeing in the media (Reader Input, Jan. 18) and by individuals is terribly misguided and potentially dangerous.We have a form of government that is deliberately inefficient. The most efficient form is a dictatorship which seems to be what Mr. Obama is in favor of when he says if Congress does not act, he will.Our Constitution is based on the idea that no government on Earth ever does anything right. Accordingly, the Constitution limits our government in what it can do and then makes it difficult even to do that which is allowed. All of this is an effort to minimize the damage government will inflict on us.Whatever things you think government does right, are the same things that thousands of your fellow citizens just as passionately believe government does wrong. Therefore, any course of action taken by government always runs roughshod over some group of citizens.The founding fathers did not create a simple democracy because they feared that a tyranny of the majority would develop.Instead, they created a representative democracy, with power being distributed over three branches.This is not very efficient if all you want to do it get things done, but brilliant if you want to protect citizens from their neighbors, even if their neighbors occasionally constitute a majority.Congressman Tom McClintock is exactly right when he says that Congress is divided because the American people are divided. In this circumstance Congress is functioning just as it should. There is partisan politics and gridlock which is far superior to the decrees of a dictator or the tyranny of the majority.In fact, bi-partisanship worries me and it should worry you because it may mean the political parties are ganging up on us.I much prefer competing ideas with heated debate resulting in not much being done.By the way, all legislation is morality. It's just a matter of whose morality is legislated.Grant Shaw, Auburn