The American Experiment started with something almost unrecognizable to what we see and experience today. And not just in a “we have hundreds of millions of people and nuclear weapons now” kind of way. But a much more fundamental way. Not only is the size, scope, and importance of our government wholly different than what the founders intended, but the way we interact with it, too, is entirely different. Democracy wasn’t in the cards for us–not at first at least. Open hearings, political primaries, widespread ballot initiatives–none of this was in the cards for the US. It was truly a wholly different government that was signed into law in 1789. One that, possibly, was even meant to fail in the long run.