Downhill slide of Democracy....

How Long Do We Have?

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 Athenian Republic 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 the 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 Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

Number of States won by: Democrats: 19 Republicans: 29 Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000 Republicans: 2,427,000 Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million Republicans: 143 million Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Democrats: 13.2 Republicans: 2.1 Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Democrat 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 illegal's and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.

WE LIVE IN THE LAND OF THE FREE, ONLY BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE

You won't have to worry about my vote!

All good and valid points, but again, don't rely on either party to "fix" things and solve the problems...ain't gonna happen.

To go back a few years further then the learned Professor Tyler:

"That government is best which governs least"

That's a quote from Emerson, Thoreau, or one of them dead guys who actually understood that government was nothing more then a necessary evil, and not an essential part of society.....

When you work for something, you tend to value it, look at our cars. Do we put big dollars in them and not give a sh-t about them? We try our best to take care of them. I'm trying to teach my grandson the valve of money, he likes to come over here because it's fun and we treat him like a kid should be treated. He helps me burn wood and drag branches to the fire, and he doesn't ask for money but I tell him he was a big help and he has earned what I give him. We have change lying around and I want him to know that it's not ok to take it. I'll pay him if kids do not learn this concept they will think everyone owes them.

If I have enough brains to try to teach my grandson why can't the government make people work for what they are getting, if they are disabled and can not work then take care of them.

No one subsidized my mortgage or my $12.00 a week sleeping room when I got out of the Army in 1967, and I never asked nor should I or anyone else who can work.

I would like to be driving a new car or I should say my wife because she does the driving. The daily driver is 2000 Plymouth Neon we paid $758 because it had 146000 miles and had been in an accident. I pounded the fender out and it has other dings but it runs. There should be things that people could do that would help this Country for those getting a free lunch. If they had to work for what they get maybe they would want a better job with pay then they could pay taxes. We go right back to there seem to never be any balance.

When the criminal politicians get their hand in the cookie jar cut it off it works in some Countries. They should not be in office until they die. If they do not perform get them out we shouldn't have to wait to vote them out. They make promises if they can't keep them get them out. Your not kept on your job if your not producing. People should get to this Country the way they did in the beginning, no short cuts.

Richard

That particular post has been circulating for five or six years, and there are some errors, not the least of which is that no one can verify the Tyler analysis. Also, Professor Olson has stated that he is not the source of any of the statistics or comments attributed to him. The name of the university is wrong in this version, and at least three or four of Tyler's books have been quoted as the source of the Athenian analysis. Like most internet "reports," it seems to morph from post to post.

Please understand that these comments in no way reflect my political views, but rather are made in the interest of accuracy.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp

If you guys want to talk politics, take it to another board as we are not going to let both sides get in to another heated discussion which bends everyones noses out of joint.

All other political discussion threads will be removed without warning.


Bill S.