[flowerplough]

“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a “warm body” democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction….

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.”

To Sail Beyond the Sunset
Robert A.Heinlein

[Osnome]

>>“The America of my time line is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies, what has eventually happened to all perfect democracies throughout all histories. A perfect democracy, a “warm body” democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction….

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.”

To Sail Beyond the Sunset
Robert A.Heinlein
<<
That simplistic cynicism shows Heinlein lack of faith in America, and Democracy in particular.
He did not think we would last this long.
In his book ‘StarShip Troopers’(1959) he predicted that the North American Republic would colapse after 1987.

I could say the same about Science Fiction in general for its’ UnAmerican Cynicism.

Many factors brought about the ruin of democracy, many factors bring about the ruin.

[Lurker]

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

Heinlein was a prophet.