[philman_36]

The Framers designed the American constitutional system not as a direct democracy but as a representative republic, where enlightened delegates of the people would serve the public good.

No, they didn't. It says right there "the American constitutional system". That means a Constitutional Republic, not a representative republic.
A representative republic is the rule of men, not the rule of law.

What the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our choice have conferred on our President, and the President of our choice has assented to, & accepted over the friendly strangers, to whom the mild spirit of our country, & it’s laws had pledged hospitality & protection: that the men of our choice have more respected the bare suspicions of the President, than the solid rights of innocence, the claims of justification, the sacred force of truth, & the forms and substance of law & justice: in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution.
Thomas JeffersonThe preservation of the republic urgently requires imparting constitutional principles to a new generation and reviving Madisonian reason in an impetuous world.
This article is not doing that through promulgating that a representative republic was established instead of a Constitutional Republic.
They've put the cart (representative republic) before the horse (Constitutional Republic).

[mrsmith]

""the American constitutional system". "

Which is unique, and exceptional.
Madison et al rejected not just democracy, but feudalism in all it's forms.
They crated a *rational* structure of government. It is still the only such in the world.
Other countries merely injected democracy into the feudal structure of their governments. An improvement, to be sure, but they are still bound by their feudal structures.

Our states had many feudal powers in their territory, and the Federal government had many feudal powers in foreign affairs and between the states. But the structure was not feudal. It was rationally the best that could be created.

Very disappointing that no other country has taken up the challenge of our experiment.