Democracy, Power, Filibuster

The U. S. Constitution empowers a citizen to vote, a power that can be exercised to a lesser or greater degree, depending on factors such as knowledge of issues, interest in available candidates, etc.  But, voting Power is not ruling Power, primarily because a vote can be a losing one.  In such cases, one can be as powerless in a Democracy as in a Monarchy. Now, what in the U. S. Democracy defends against the tyrannization that can be unconditional in the latter are procedural mechanisms, notably the 60% threshold for ending a filibuster in the Senate.  So, the novel element in the American Experiment consists in neither its Democracy nor its Power to Rule, but in its perhaps unprecedented degree of Empowerment of the Ruled.