“A democracy as a system of government will exist only until the people discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury.”
Which is why we are supposed to have a Republic, not a democracy. Until the 1930’s the US Army’s own training manuals had this to say to about democracy:
CITIZENSHIP Democracy:
A government of the masses. Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of “direct” expression. Results in mobocracy. Attitude toward property is communistic—negating property rights. Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether is be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences. Results in demogogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy