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
I googled and came up with your post at the top. You said it.
I've got a better source for you than a dictionary...
The World Factbook
Federal republic - a state in which the powers of the central government are restricted and in which the component parts (states, colonies, or provinces) retain a degree of self-government; ultimate sovereign power rests with the voters who chose their governmental representatives.
You'll note that "representative democracy" isn't even listed.
And you'll note here...United States Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition
You aren't going to convince me that America is a democracy of any kind so you may as well quit trying. I'm immune to the agitprop.
"Bread and Circuses is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader--the barbarians enter Rome."
Robert A. Heinlein -- To Sail Beyond the Sunset
"When one wonders who say what, you will find Bob Heinlein probably said it once or twice in his long, productive life!" -- Bender2 9-15-07
Now, ya'll all doing okay?
Fine...
"A pair of new socks is only new the first time you wear them.
After the first laundering, they fail to remain new."
Allegra
2007
For you, anytime my FRiend.
Well we are well past that stage now aren't we? That is about all the congress does these days. Vote on bribes (earmarks anyone). The U.S. government has become nothing more than a conduit for bribes. The things that it does that are truly constitutional are few and far between it seems these days.
John / Billybob
P.S. to All: Any quote that comes without a reliable source citation should be disregarded. That’s how frauds like Lincoln’s admonitions, and the Desiderata, get started.
When I posted to this thread, I was thinking of the article for which you provided a click link, Great minds, and all that.
Please send my info on your current office address and phone. I am thinking about another run for Congress in the 11th District. The long-term incumbent, Charles Taylor, is now gone, exactly as I said he would be, last time around. This race will now be a donnybrook, and I would appreciate your sage advice on same.
Please send your reply not through Freepmail, but to:
John_Armor@aya.yale.edu
Thanks.
John / Billybob
John / Billybob
-Ben Franklin
Agitprop, my a**.
FYI, Tyler was credited with that quote but it is highly debatable. Whoever said it is a genius......
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)
FYI, Tyler was credited with that quote but it is highly debatable. Whoever said it is a genius.
Interesting that nobody knows who to attribute that quotation to. I’m going to credit you.
Nick Danger has pointed out that democracies only last....
LOL
UGH, high school dropouts.
But...but...how can that be? No direct democracies there. /sarcasm
I don't see any point in continuing to list more, which there are, do you?
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