Democracy Delusions

Townhall.com ^ | November 12, 2014 | John Stossel

[griswold3]

Voting for the lesser of two evils keeps the greater evil out of power. hopefully one of these elections we’ll get it right and shrink back to one that’s Constitutionally limited. Until then, vote for those who believe in personal freedom and economic liberty.
The government that governs least, governs best.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Are you capable of reading English? What I said was that John Stossel did not propose anything in his column that would be preferable to voting. That is all.

I did not make any statement at all concerning the actual form of government of this country. Please do not attempt to tell me that I have said otherwise. And you can save that crap about unintentionally implicit whatever, too. Pay attention to what is there, not what you invent.

[trubolotta]

Our founders’ “scheme” was that government be expressly limited. By and large, elitists are deceivers and will game any system. Elitists have turned our representative republic granting government limited power into a near feudal state with lords, vassals and serfs.

[Alberta's Child]

Our Founders' "scheme" -- in terms of how the government functioned (I'm not referring to the political underpinnings of the nation) -- was that voting rights were limited to property owners. This was because they were seen as the only people who were capable, competent and responsible enough to ensure the long-term protection of the system they had established.

I'd also suggest that this whole idea of an "expressly limited" government may have been a utopian delusion or even outright hypocrisy. If you look at the events surrounding the Whiskey Rebellion of the early 1790s, for example, you could make the case that the United States of America as envisioned by our Founders didn't even last half a decade.

[RipSawyer]

The true meaning of democracy is majority rule which means mob rule. The founders designed us a republic and the constitution guarantees a republican form of government but we long ago lost the republic. It degenerated into a defacto democracy and is now just another oligarchy ruled by a few who put forth election choices which are equivalent to picking one of two intoxicated drivers to put behind the wheel of the vehicle in which you are tied down while it speeds toward a thousand foot drop. The one with the R on his back drives slowly and steadily toward the cliff when he has the wheel while telling you how smart you were not to let the other guy drive. The one with the D on his back drives faster and shouts and waves his arms while telling you that you only think he is heading toward a cliff, in reality he is taking you to paradise to save you from the other driver with the R on his back. Now and then they stop to get more beer and play a round of golf together. Your only hope is to break your bonds and get out of the damned vehicle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdS6fyUIklI

[Graybeard58]

Are you capable of reading English? What I said was that John Stossel did not propose anything in his column that would be preferable to voting.

You are the one who "must not be capable of reading your own English"

Here's what you, wrote again:

What I don’t find in this column is what Mr. Stossel thinks would be better than democracy

You originally said, "Democracy" now you are attempting to say that you said "voting".

I don't want to quibble with you and I apologize for offending you. I hope you have a better day, now I have to go blow, rake and burn a couple tons of leaves. God bless you and yours as richly as He has blessed my family.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Well, for not wanting to quibble, you’re certainly doing just that. I am well capable of reading my own English, and what I wrote was that John Stossel did not propose a superior alternative to democracy in his column.

Democracy, just so you will now know, is defined by Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary as “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usu. involving periodically held free elections”. Elections, as you might or might not know (I can assume nothing), are carried out by voting. Thus, when I use the word “voting”, I am referring to the democratic process.

If I had decided to quote myself directly, I would have used quotation marks. Since I did not, I knew perfectly well that I had used a different word in my later post. What I don’t need is for someone to tell me that I had written something that I had not, and then to claim that I had quoted myself, when that was not the case.

Anyway, thank you for your blessing.