Posted on 01/19/2008 5:58:50 PM PST by ImpBill
HOW LONG DOES THE USA HAVE?
This is the most interesting thing I've read in a long time. The sad thing about it, you can see it coming. I have always heard about this democracy countdown. It is interesting and concerning to see it in print. God help us, not that we deserve it.
How Long Do We Have?
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.'
'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.'
'From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.'
'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years'
'During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage'
Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota , points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:
Number of States won by:
Gore: 19
Bush: 29
Square miles of land won by:
Gore: 580,000
Bush: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by:
Gore: 127 million
Bush: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore: 13.2
Bush: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: 'In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country.
Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare...' Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the 'complacency and apathy' phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's population already having reached the 'governmental dependency' phase.
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegal and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.
I have read a couple of sources that point out that only about a max of 40% of the colonists supported revolution, 10 to 20% remained loyal and 40 to 50% tried to remain neutral.
40% of today’s populace is conservative is the figure I’ve heard bandied about for years. Supposedly, 40% of today’s populace is liberal with the rest being neutral.
100% correct. Except.... We’ve been moving toward a direct democracy ever since. Radical changes in how we elect the pres., DIRECT election of senators, and most importantly, the wholesale rape, mutilation, murder, destruction, and denigration of the enumeration.
Look around. This is exactly where we're headed!
Poor argument. The only reason we are in trouble at all is because of liberal babyboomers.
One can question the messenger but it is folly to question the message.
This has a source and is basically the same observation.
"The Roman Republic fell, not because of the ambition of Caesar or Augustus, but because it had already long ceased to be in any real sense a republic at all. When the sturdy Roman plebeian, who lived by his own labor, who voted without reward according to his own convictions, and who with his fellows formed in war the terrible Roman legion, had been changed into an idle creature who craved nothing in life save the gratification of a thirst for vapid excitement, who was fed by the state, and who directly or indirectly sold his vote to the highest bidder, then the end of the Republic was at hand, and nothing could save it. The laws were the same as they had been, but the people behind the laws had changed, and so the laws counted for nothing.
Teddy Roosevelt on the Fall of the Republic
The Maryland colony was founded by Catholics. The Calvert family was catholic, as were a number of the early gentry.
Eliminating most Catholics may not be appropriate, at least in that colony, where many signed an oath to the Soverign State of Maryland after the revolution, my ancestors among them.
There are similar readings in Plato’s Republic, where he talks about how democracy eventually defaults to tyranny soon after the citizens demand absolute freedom with no restrictions whatsoever. For present day examples of this think about the demand for pedophilia, necrophilia, and sex with animals to be legalized. We are just about there. I’m typing this while watching Bill Geist report at the Adult Movie Awards.
The founders' wisdom mandated that America be a Republic and they purposely avoided democracy. Perhaps that is why the word "democracy" is never mentioned in the Constitution.
How Long Does the USA have?
Facing a Romney vs Hillary election? Then I’d have to say that the limited central government designed and intended by our founders should just about be done within a decade.
I’m afraid the America is deep into the “apathy” stage and IF Hillary is elected we’ll transition quickly from apathy to dependence.
Once that happens China, Russia, and the Middle-East will ensure our collapse into bondage.
Hmmm...if the dollar really blows out hard.....the whole thing’ll come to a screeching halt faster than anybody here could imagine....
A simpler quote to the same end is this from Mark Twain: "Let me write a nation's customs, and I care not who writes its laws."
John / Billybob
Definitely prior to Viet Nam!
Sure wish I had checked the sources of the email out before I posted it. But I knew instantly upon reading it that the context was correct!
As Spengler said “...petty parliments do not last forever...”
"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
The only effective weapon we presently have is our vote. It is one of the reasons that I have chosen to end my days of "voting for the lessor of two evils". Unfortunately I don't think enough citizens even know of this clause, much less care to look for ways to "alter or abolish" the shameful state our "two party" system has reached.
So we are back to square one in looking for remedies I surmise.
Preaching to the choir my friend. Not that it soothes my soul any!
Well I think you can find more than demographics to support the argument, but can’t take exception to what you posted.
Thank you!
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