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Walter Williams: What's Gone Wrong With Democracy?
Creators Syndicate ^ | March 25, 2015 | Walter E. Williams

Posted on 03/23/2015 10:43:49 AM PDT by jazusamo

The Economist magazine recently published "What's gone wrong with Democracy ... and what can be done to revive it?" The suggestion is that democracy is some kind of ideal for organizing human conduct. That's a popular misconception.

The ideal way to organize human conduct is to create a system that maximizes personal liberty for all. Liberty and democracy are not synonymous and most often are opposites. In Federalist Paper No. 10, James Madison explained, "Measures are too often decided, not according to the rules of justice and the rights of the minor party, but by the superior force of an interested and overbearing majority." Democracy and majority rule confer an aura of legitimacy and respectability on acts that would otherwise be deemed tyrannical.

Let's look at majority rule, as a decision-making tool, and ask ourselves how many of our life choices we would like settled by majority rule. Would you want the kind of car you own to be decided through a democratic process, or would you prefer purchasing any car you please? Ask that same question about decisions such as where you shall live, what clothes you purchase, what food you eat, what entertainment you enjoy and what wines you drink. I'm sure that if anyone suggested that these choices be subject to a democratic process, we would deem it tyranny.

Our Founders saw democracy as a variant of tyranny. At the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Edmund Randolph said, "...that in tracing these evils to their origin every man had found it in the turbulence and follies of democracy." John Adams said, "Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."...

(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: constitution; democracy; federalistpapers; foundingfathers; republic; walterwilliams
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To: jazusamo

Democracy doe not mesh with “Third World” intellect and defective impulse control.


21 posted on 03/23/2015 10:54:02 AM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS
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To: Still Thinking
...and what can be done to revive it?"

Nothing political.

What's WRONG is called SIN!


The revival needs to take place in our HEARTS!!



 

 

 

2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people, who are called by my name,
shall humble themselves,
and pray, and seek my face,
and turn from their wicked ways; ,

then will I hear from heaven,
and will forgive their sin,
and will heal their land.

22 posted on 03/23/2015 10:55:18 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Yosemitest

Read the article again. For comprehension this time.


23 posted on 03/23/2015 10:56:25 AM PDT by Ken H (DILLIGAF)
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To: Still Thinking
They started letting idiots folks with no skin in the game vote.
24 posted on 03/23/2015 10:56:30 AM PDT by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
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To: Resettozero

Do you even know how to read more than a headline or paragraph?


25 posted on 03/23/2015 10:56:31 AM PDT by arasina (Communism is EVIL. So there.)
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To: jazusamo

26 posted on 03/23/2015 10:57:58 AM PDT by Baynative (You can judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.)
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To: Yosemitest

Please give us the specifics on how Walter Williams is a liberal.


27 posted on 03/23/2015 10:58:14 AM PDT by arasina (Communism is EVIL. So there.)
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To: albie

Geez people. Reading is FUNdamental.


28 posted on 03/23/2015 10:58:21 AM PDT by Ken H (DILLIGAF)
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To: jazusamo

Bill of Rights Amendment 9: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”

Amendment 10: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

The idea that there are individual rights retained by the people FROM government is a basic foundational block in our government. The authority for government delegated to the federal government was specific and defined. The police powers delegated to the states are constrained to the regulation of individual actions that pose a substantial injury to general public health, safety and morals. Regulation is not to be used to promote a public benefit.

We have strayed widely off the track encroaching on our individual retained rights by the “tyranny of the majority.” The more regulation we have, the less liberty and we are mired in regulation.


29 posted on 03/23/2015 10:58:47 AM PDT by marsh2
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To: Resettozero; Yosemitest
Does he even know this Nation is a republic, not a democracy?

Good grief. He's answering a question asked by The Economist magazine.

30 posted on 03/23/2015 10:59:34 AM PDT by MileHi (Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: jazusamo
Another great article from Walter Williams.

Good grief. It's a shame that so many didn't read it before posting just based on a title.

31 posted on 03/23/2015 11:01:42 AM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: Elsie
They started letting idiots folks with no skin in the game vote.

LOL! Exactly.

32 posted on 03/23/2015 11:02:53 AM PDT by MileHi (Liberalism is an ideology of parasites, hypocrites, grievance mongers, victims, and control freaks.)
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To: MileHi; Ken H; arasina

I knew this would happen :)


33 posted on 03/23/2015 11:03:45 AM PDT by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin....and the turkey has.)
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To: Servant of the Cross

Bump


34 posted on 03/23/2015 11:04:25 AM PDT by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin....and the turkey has.)
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To: jazusamo

First: the US is a represented republic which is currently under control of a group of rogue politicians. Second: the FIX, ALL politicians representing the people of the US will be 100% subject to any and all laws they pass, NO EXCEPTIONS. All laws must fall within the complete purview of the original US Constitution, NO EXCEPTIONS.


35 posted on 03/23/2015 11:05:22 AM PDT by drypowder
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To: Resettozero

Do you even know that he is writing about an article in the Economist call “What’s Gone Wrong With Democracy?”


36 posted on 03/23/2015 11:07:13 AM PDT by all the best
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To: jazusamo

Democracy with universal suffrage can never survive for long.


37 posted on 03/23/2015 11:09:36 AM PDT by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not A Matter of Opinion)
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To: jazusamo

Nothing wrong with democracy. It’s just that over half the American people are drooling idiots with their heads up their a$$e$.


38 posted on 03/23/2015 11:13:10 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: Resettozero

“Does he even know this Nation is a republic, not a democracy?”

Resettozero; have you read the article? Your comment makes you seem an ignorant fool.


39 posted on 03/23/2015 11:14:32 AM PDT by Born to Conserve
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To: albie

Could you point out where Walter Williams says we are a democracy? You may want to read further and return those notches to their previous level.


40 posted on 03/23/2015 11:14:49 AM PDT by arasina (Communism is EVIL. So there.)
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