Posted on 09/14/2007 6:53:26 PM PDT by for-q-clinton
Need to know who said "Democracy is doomed to failure when the 51% of the population figures out they can take everything from the other 49%"? Or something like that.
thank you
“Equal rights for all, special rights for none”.
Thomas Jefferson
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, followed always by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”
—Alexander Fraser Tytler
This one is kind of close:
The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.
Alexis de Tocqueville
not the one I was thinking of, but I like this one better anyway.
“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
—Thomas Jefferson
thank you.
George Putnam used to broadcast the steps democracies passed though on the way from inception to detruction. I believe there were something like 12 or 13 steps in his version of this. I wish I knew where I could put my hands on the listing. We are at about step 11 or 12 right now in our national experience.
we’re not a democracy.
“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” Thomas Jefferson ...
Yes, I’ve seen that. Can’t find it at the moment though. I’m sure someone will post it... It turns up on FR every few weeks or so.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government.
It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.
From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over lousy fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average of the world’s great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years.
These nations have progressed in this sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
from faith to great courage;
from courage to liberty;
from liberty to abundance;
from abundance to selfishness;
from selfishness to Complacency;
from complacency to apathy;
from apathy to dependency;
from dependency back again to bondage.
Alexander Fraser Tyler, Cycle of Democracy (1770)
Correction: We’re not a pure democracy. We’re a republic, which is a form of democracy; namely, a representative democracy.
Rush Limbaugh paraphrased that before years ago, but I’m sure someone else could have said it before that.
Thank you. That’s what I was looking for. I appreciate it.
There we go! :-)
Thanks. You were right. Take care.
democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner.
“Democracy in the truest sense of the word negates freedom because unlimited majority rule could (and most likely would) lead to the tyranny of the majority over the minority (i.e., 51% enslaving the other 49%). Freedom is protected by principles not by votes. Freedom means that individuals must not be physically coerced, not even by majority rule. Freedom means individual rights: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, capitalism, [and] free traders, not masters and slaves.” —Greg Miller
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
-- George Bernard Shaw (1944)
I know the quote you want, but I just can't find it at the moment...
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