CAN DEMOCRACY LAST?
About the time our original 13 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 Athenian Republic some
2,000 years prior:
"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 that they can vote themselves generous gifts
from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes 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 worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of
history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these 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 Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul,
Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000
Presidential election:
Population of counties won by: Gore: 127 million;? Bush: 143 million; Square
miles of land won by: Gore: 580,000; Bush: 2,427,000 States won by: Gore:
19; Bush: 29 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 tax-paying citizens of this great country.
Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in
government-owned tenements and living off 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 40
percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental
dependency" phase.
Please try to realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the
greatest danger to our freedom. I wonder what will happen to our country, if
the Senate grants Amnesty and citizenship to 20 million illegals and they
vote. |
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