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.
A Republic offers equality of opportunity.
A Socialist offers equality of outcome.
It’s easy to see where our country’s road started and where it is now.
My point was that the premise of the purported author is incorrect.
Most of the great civilizations of world history never had periods of anything vaguely resembling freedom or democracy. In fact, of all the ancient civilizations, there are only really two that did. Those were Greece (in its many city-states) and the Roman Republic. Since both were slave-based and quite restrictive on who was a citizen, even their “freedom” was largely illusory by modern standards.
That the supposed author thinks these two outliers make up a survey of world civilizations tells us little about world history, but much about his parochial vision.
Meanwhile, in the real world, civilizations that were never democratic or “free” plugged along for thousands of years.
Maryland was started as a colony with relative Freedom of Religion, by its Catholic proprietors under Royal Authority, but the majority soon become Anglican, anddisenfranchized the Catholics.
I think I understand your point. My response was/is that it really doesn't matter if a civilization plugs along for 1000s of years, if they are not free.
So what if the US plugs along for the next 1000 years. I'm not content with what it it is and fearful of what it will become.
I am aware of the Protestant Reformation of the 1730s, when a Jesuit priest sold himself to one of my ancestors and became property of the manor lord, untouchable under English Common Law. Perhaps those of lesser standing were disenfranchised, but not those who were landed by grant. Thus the disenfranchisement was not as complete as one might assume.
You are welcome. The crux of your original post is accurate, IMHO.
Then I guess the ball's in our court.
WY, I figure after two years, the mask will be off.
Her plan for change will not be what anyone expected, and the changes will be so radical(we have a tutorial in how she managed the Healthcare Initiative Task Force in ‘93-’94)
that people will be forced to take a stand to oppose her.
I see Hillary as the 21st Century American Hitler. Just as Hitler demonized groups to manipulate the German masses, so will Hillary. She has no view of an America bound by the Constitution. Bill two terms gave us a foreshadowing of how government agencies will be used as weapons against Americans, but she will do it on a broader scale.
She has telegraphed all of this through her speeches.
She is an evil person. Remember the tear she shed in NH? It wasn’t for some homeless or jobless person, or an amputee just home from Iraq.
IT WAS FOR HERSELF!
She spouts change, but has brought on all of the old Clintonoids from 1992 back into her campaign.
So, I figure two years in, there will be a new Lexington or Concord somewhere.
We have been almost immune from this since we were founded, but then, we have never had anyone so power crazed and evil as Her Heinous wanting to be President.
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