We lost it in 1913 on December 23 sometime around 1:30 a.m. when the hoodwinked partial congress (those who were present...everyone else went home for Christmas) passed the federal reserve act and thus negating THEIR constitutional authority of printing coinage & paper money. It's been a slow, progressive downhill direction ever since. Though the pace of devolution has picked up in the last 10 years or so. IMHO.

I think the amazing part is that it took this long. As the old saying goes, a democracy will only last until the people realize they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.
The sad part is that it is so clear what is happening, and so easy to fix, but people just don't care. Our forefathers required people to own property in order to vote. The thinking was they needed to have skin in the game to get to participate. Now, you don't even have to know who the candidates are to vote. I'm sure some of it is exaggerated for entertainment, but these man on the street interviews really make me sad. I recall Howard Stern (I hate him, but heard it somewhere else), sent his people out to interview voters, and was able to get several people to agree they were going to vote for Romney because he was black (yes you read that right).
The reason our bureaucracy is able to get so out of control is because most people in our country don't understand it, or take the time to learn. Experiment- ask everyone you run into tomorrow what Net Neutrality was all about. I bet you well over 75% will say it was about making sure their Netflix stays reasonable priced. No wonder the bureaucracy is not afraid of us.

What makes anyone think that we have an actual Constitutional form of government to lose. Sorry, but it's been gone for awhile.

It was slinking that way, but the Pat Riot act (who the h*** is this Pat Rot, anyway? I didn't vote for him!!) has opened the floodgate. As a test case for theft and annihilation of American principles, all it took was sømeøne and his team of løøters to exploit it... and a nation of sheep who not only won't fight it, but support and defend not the constitution, but the Emperør and his ilk.

What was Pogo's famous quote?

"We have met the enemy, and he is us"...

"That's depressing."
Quote from Atlas Shrugged I

There is a quickening occurring now. The next couple years will be a very wild ride, I think.

I keep thinking that the nation really was permanently damaged by 9/11. I am surprised at the general fear I see in so many people - so willing to let the government run more and more of their lives. 9/11 just seems to keep popping up when I try to analyze how different we were in my younger years...