> provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity<p>Good definition of the goals of self-government. I prefer the phrasing of the Declaration of Independence, dated as it is.<p>Regardless of how you say it, it's an idea that is either very difficult to communicate or that many just do not agree with. The "intellectual elites" must "protect their interests" (unfairly quoted from someone else on HN) regardless of what those who disagree think.