[MtnClimber]

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day be day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except the endless present in which the party is always right.” ~ George Orwell

[Alberta's Child]

The U.S. wasn’t designed to function as a democracy. In fact, the founders of this country went to great lengths to MINIMIZE the influence that voters have in our government.

No, it’s not “worth it.”

[Gay State Conservative]

Can't recall the exact quote but some wise person once observed that democracy can last until the people realize that they can vote themselves funds from the public purse (not the exact quote).

We've reached that point...in fact,we're far beyond it. I must confess that I'm glad that I'm a lot closer to the grave than to the cradle.

[polymuser]

Democracy is never worth it. Especially for the sheep.

America is a republic. Anyone calling us a democracy is at least ignorant, at worst an anti-American subservise.

Constitution of the United States of America, Section 4:

“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence.”

A 10 minute video primer on types of governments:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jJEuZrvNYg0

[Joe 6-pack]

Democracy will by its very nature, be a living hell for up to 49% of its people. In a state where, “majority rules,” is the only means of deciding an issue, what’s to stop the poorest 51% from voting to take 100% of the wealth of the “richest” 49%?

[Fester Chugabrew]

I’m not seeing where the author answers his own weak question.

[moovova]

Thank you both for posting this article (within minutes of each other😁).

It deserves to be read twice!

[who_would_fardels_bear]

Finally. Someone on the acceptable right quotes Michels and his "Iron Law of Oligarchy".

However, he then goes on to say that the polling booth is our hope.

Oh well, hope springs eternal I guess.

[AndyTheBear]

I favor CS Lewis’s view on Democracy (as broadly defined not necessarily a pure democracy). I favor it not because people are so virtuous that they all should be given a hand in government, but because people are so corruptible that their hand in government must be limited.

[x]

Constitutionally, we are a representative republic, but we became a democracy with the Jeffersonian-Jacksonian expansion of the franchise. In a similar way, Britain is constitutionally a monarchy, but became a democracy with the 20th century expansion of voting rights (and the diminution of the monarch's powers). There are no pure democracies (though ancient Athens was one at least to its own way of thinking).

It may be that Mosca and Michels are right and "democracy" doesn't exist in the modern world, but we do need words that distinguish systems with some public accountability and some freedom from authoritarian and totalitarian systems. We also need to understand the changes that our system has gone through over time. We're right in thinking that the Founders and Framers would be appalled by the current situation, but they would also have been appalled by 19th century America.

[jmacusa]

No Democracy isn’t worth it. A constitutional republic is.

[sauropod]

.

[Fledermaus]

And the sheep obliged and willingly got on the trains to the camps and crawled in the ovens.

[Gay State Conservative]

I saw it written once that "a democracy can last until the people realize that they can vote money from the public purse" (not an exact quote).

The Rat Party is now based on a policy of being willing to give "him" the shirt off *my* back.

IOW,democracy is dead here in the US.