You know, we forget sometimes…in all the talk about democracy, we forget that it’s not a democracy, it’s a republic. The people dont make the decisions, they chose the people who make the decisions. Could they do a better job chosing? Yeah. But when you consider the alternatives… — Josiah Bartlett (Aaron Sorkin), The West Wing

I was just watching some old episodes of The West Wing, which I’m known to do occasionally (especially on boring Sunday afternoons), and I have always loved this line. To anybody more curious, it comes from the sixth episode of the second season, titled “The Lame Duck Congress.” It was far too long to fit in a Tweet, and wouldn’t have the same impact if i had to disjoint it and spread it across tweets…