interesting email I received (political)

[Ranger Mom]

At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinborough) 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 world's greatest civilizations, from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From Bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."


Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most recent Presidential election:

Population of counties won by:
Gore=127 million
Bush=143 million
Square miles of land won by:
Gore=580,000
Bush=2,2427,000
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 U.S. 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.

Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake in this Election Year and that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

[spiveyrat]

I've seen this before. Did OC publish it on here, perhaps? Can't remember. It is a little worry-some. :eek:

[Ranger Mom]

Originally posted by spiveyrat
I've seen this before. Did OC publish it on here, perhaps? Can't remember. It is a little worry-some. :eek:

Could be......I had never read it before!

It does kinda make you think though!

[Gilmer Buckeye]

"... every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship."

The current administration took a huge surplus and turned it into the biggest deficit in federal budgetary history. The national debt is now more than $7.2 trillion and it was around $6 trillion and even coming down a bit when it took office. The Congress which has voted the spending is controlled by the GOP as well. This is the loosest fiscal policy in our country's history.

So maybe they actually want to bring on a dictatorship (see USA PATRIOT Act, which stripped Congress of many powers of oversight and which no member of the Congress even read before it passes almost unanimously; Rep. Ron Paul and Sen. Russ Feingold are the only two legislators which come to mind who opposed it).

Since GW Bush actually lost the nationwide popular vote in 2000 by more than 540,000 votes, it is not really in his interest to leave things to democratic chance.

Even the names of the two main parties tell you something about them: Democrats believe in rule by the people. (Or "mob rule" as its critics would say.) That is the etymology of the word. Republicans believe in "res publica" (Latin meaning "the public thing" roughly). Democrats believe, rightly or wrongly, that government exists to serve the people in areas such as health care and education. Republicans believe government exists to protect their hard-earned or, in some cases, cleverly- and "legally"-stolen property.

Both would also say they believe government should protect life and liberty, unless one is fanatic about the abortion issue and wants to call the Democrats (even though there are a lot of Republicans who are "pro-choice" as well) "baby killers." Or one is fanatic about drug use, prostitution, etc., as "victimless crimes" and calls the drug/sex warriors' victims who are deprived of their liberty "political prisoners."

The Republicans need to try to take the right to vote away from women, particularly single women with children. They overwhelmingly vote for Democrats. They also need to keep working overtime on rigging the computerized "black box" voting systems such as those sold by Diebold and to resist all efforts to create "paper trails" for purposes of recounts.

BTW, I will vote Libertarian as I almost always do at the presidential level. It is not a "wasted vote." Whenever one votes his conscience, it is not a waste. Furthermore, since we have an electoral college system and Texas is a solid "red state," there is no real contest in this state anyhow. So everyone is already wasting their vote in that sense. The outcome is a foregone conclusion in this state.

[CowboyFan]

Just stating my opinion, I don't believe voting non-republican in Texas is a wasted vote or useless, yes for along time Texas has voted republican. However, if you look at other southern states, for many years the trend was "solid south" always voted republican, in the last few elections the numbers have shifted some what for the south, politics is always subject, to change don't look at the past as the deciding factor of the future outcome. In the 40's democrats were the leading party. It wasn't until Clinton, that the democrats had an opportunity to be the leading party, I believe Gore would of won, if the Monica lewinsky thing had come out. Just I'm just rambling on.