Last hour on MSNBC’s Morning Meeting, I heard Contessa Brewer state that “loud, angry mobs” were present at the conventions in which our founders declared independence and wrote the Constitution. (The implication being, I suppose, that, hey, shouting down your Democratic congressperson is just business as usual in America! The mobs did it in 1776, and that turned out fine, so no biggie.)

As a former history teacher, I have to cry foul! The founders were terrified of mob rule; that