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Nick Nack END OF DEBATE....
Paul Ryan claims the US is the 'oldest democracy' in the world. Is he right?
By Sarah Hauer on Monday, July 11th, 2016 at 5:00 a.m.

This famous John Trumbull painting shows the signing of the Declaration of Independence. With the Constitution, did the founding fathers create the oldest democracy in the world?
When Democratic lawmakers staged a sit-in on the House floor calling for legislative action on gun control, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was unamused.
Clearly frustrated at the behavior, Ryan called the sit-in a political stunt and adjourned the House for recess for the Fourth of July holiday.
Once back in Wisconsin, Ryan appeared June 26, 2016 on Mike Gousha’s "Upfront" show on WISN TV. Gousha asked about the House Democrats, noting they said they felt like they weren’t being heard.
"We heard them plenty," Ryan said.
"You did hear them," Gousha said. "And your reaction was you’re worried about the decorum in the House. They’re talking about maybe doing more of this sort of thing when you return from recess on July 5. Are you going to handle it the same way?"
"No, we’re not going to handle it the same way," Ryan said.
"What would you do differently?," Gousha asked.
"Well, we’re working on that," Ryan said. "We will not take this. We will not tolerate this. This is the oldest deliberative body in the world. We are the oldest democracy. And we have rules of decorum so that we can peacefully settle our issues and actually have democracy."
Having just celebrated our nation’s independence from England, we thought the time was right to take a look at whether the United States is "the oldest democracy" in the world.
U.S. founding documents
The Greeks first coined the term democracy to describe self rule. The term derives from the Greek word "demos," meaning people. The city states of Ancient Greece, most notably Athens, ruled themselves.
Many historians also consider the Roman Republic a type of democracy. But both of those empires have long since fallen and, of course, are no longer in the running to be "the oldest democracy."
The United States declared its independence from England on July 4, 1776.
After a brief period governed by the Articles of Confederation, the founding fathers drafted a new, governing document establishing our government as it operates today. The U.S. Constitutionwas ratified in 1788.
PolitiFact National checked a claim on the Constitution in 2011 when former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, a Republican, said the United States has "the longest surviving constitution."
Defining a constitution as a single governing document, the claim was rated Mostly True. The U.S. constitution is the oldest single governing document, though other countries are governed by multiple documents older than our constitution. The Massachusetts state constitution is older, ratified in 1780, and served as a model for the authors of the U.S. Constitution.
Ryan’s team sent us to that factcheck as backup for his statement that the U.S. is "the oldest democracy."
"That founding document established our democracy," said Ian Martorana, Ryan’s press secretary. "It stands to reason that if America has the oldest constitution (that founded the democracy in question), then America also has the oldest democracy."
With that in mind, we turned to the history books.
Democracy vs. republic
The founding fathers feared direct democracy, which involves people deciding directly on policy initiatives and regarded it as an ill-advised form of government. They feared tyranny of the majority as much as that of a king.
Instead, they created what is typically referred to as a representative democracy or republic -- the people elect leaders who make decisions on their behalf with a system that protected minority rights
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