By now it should be no secret: America's founding fathers envisioned a land free from tyrannical restraints. In theory, this revolutionary American government would foster civil involvement, hold politicians accountable and insure a clean separation of powers. No more monarchy for the colonies. Too bad the presidency's potency threatens the nation…

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Ed. note: Today's installment of America's Queer Liberty picks up where yesterday's left off…

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America's plurality voting system limits voter's options. With one man and one vote, the man or woman with the most votes wins an election, regardless of whether they receive a majority. In such an environment, voters tend to vote tactically. That is, they lean heavily in one direction or the other. There's no middle ground.

The religious right's well aware of this democratic flaw. Taking advantage of changing political tides, these "value voters" used tactical voting to elevate the GOP to heavenly heights - with hellish results.

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Despite promises of the proverbial and mythical “American Dream,” America’s pluralistic voting system stymies progressive politics. Not only does our “first past the post” mechanism negate majority rules, America’s plurality voting scheme tends toward a two party rule, which can lead to some pretty queer politics.

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America's founding fathers envisioned a nation free of monarchical tyranny - a nation where all citizens received the right to vote. In doing so, those revolutionary thinkers hoped to ensure the government spoke for the people. As any historian will tell you, however, that independent theory didn't exactly hold up. America's founders were looking after their own – white, Christian, straight and wealthy. Fuck rule of law. Land owners were the law.

Generations - and a Civil War - later, America extended nominal rights to black and, eventually, women. Despite these moves, it would take an entire civil rights movement to overturn racist Jim Crow laws, such as literacy tests and poll taxes. Now that all Americans have the right to vote, does America's voting system guarantee all voters their rights? Don't count on it.

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It's Friday readers. You know what that means: it's Queerty ReBUTTal time! Yay!!

For those of you who don't know, Queerty ReBUTTal's the very special section in which we comment on your comments on our comments from the week that was.

Rather than selecting a couple of stories this week, readers, we're going to focus on one story in particular. Find out which one, after the jump.

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Don't take your anal sex for granted, readers. Despite what the American Constitution may say, not all people, nor their genitals, are created equal. Even before the Constitution - and, in fact, the Declaration of Independence - the thirteen colonies enforced sodomy laws. As the nation grew, so did the sexual policing.

By 1960, all fifty states had either common law or written statutes banning the nebulous "sodomy," which meant anything from hetero oral sex to homo anal sex, consensual, rape or "unnatural sin," a perplexing term considering sin's allegedly natural, right?

Federalism, the division of state and central governments, only further highlighted - and sometimes entrenched - the nation's congenital sexual inequities. Find out what we mean, after the jump.

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The United States' government looks a little haggard for a mere 231 years old. Congress folk are gunning for the President. The President's gunning for even more disaster in Iraq. And President Cheney's gunning to tear down the power balance between the legislative and the executive branch. The Supreme Court, meanwhile, has been leaning so far right, one wonders why it hasn't fallen over.

As for the gays – well, we’re the government’s the legislative bottom. We may all be able to vote, but not all of us can marry, adopt and, despite 2003’s Lawrence v. Texas, legally fuck in some states. National public approval of gays, however, stands at record high.

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It’s been 231 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That signing marked the beginning of the democratic age. Those scrappy, ballsy American colonies took on the British Empire and actually won. Liberal democracy became the name of the game. As the Second Continental Congress' declared:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

The government belonged to the people. The rule of law became the law of the land. Unfortunately, rule of law doesn't always rule for the people.

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