Democracy - the hard way

The great fear of the founders of the United States was that, having created their country out of a violence that papered over the country's fundamental internal contradictions ... it would break apart again. And it would do so violently. They were right to be afraid, as that was preciely what happened some 75 years later. That original fear of the founders still lies at the heart of nationalism in the United States and still drives the country's idea of citizenship expressed through loyalty.

-- John Ralston Saul, A Fair Country (p.139)