About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the AthenianRepublic some 2,000 years earlier: "A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from t he public treasury." "From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship." "The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence: 1. From bondage to spiritual faith; 2. From spiritual faith to great courage; 3. From courage to liberty; 4. From liberty to abundance; 5. From abundance to complacency; 6. From complacency to apathy; 7. From apathy to dependence; 8. From dependence back into bondage" Professor Joseph Olson of HamlineUniversitySchool of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election: Number of States won by: Gore: 19; Bush: 29 Square miles of land won by: Gore: 580,000; Bush: 2,427,000 Population of counties won by: Gore: 127 million; Bush: 143 million Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Gore: 13.2; Bush: 2.1 Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..." Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase. If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty-million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then we can say good-bye to the USA in fewer than five years.
All of which seems to bear out one of the Founding Father's observations that for a democracy (or a republic for that matter) to survive depends on persons capable of thinking beyond themselves. I wish I could find that quote, dammit. I've been intending to add it to my sig line. I've become fond of the idea of a benevolent oligarchy in concept, but where to find a few good men that would not become corrupt with the absolute power that they would have to have and exert?
It's already gone..... we're looking for Ron Paul to bring it back from the dead. And I have a better comparison of Bush/Gore: Bush..... Criminal Gore..... Criminal
Interesting post Sniper66.... Just two more steps and we're back to the beginning... Unfortunately, the hard working middle class is continally getting squeezed and pushed by the entitlement population who believe they deserve everything for free and the Wealthy Elite who have brokered their wealth into power and are used to being served... Too many sitting on their butts and not enough actually doing productive work... JMHO... Party On!