Subject:
"Democracy" in decline by Professor Olson
At about the time our original 13 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 prior:
THE FALL OF THE ATHENIAN REPUBLIC... "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 that
they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that
moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most
benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will
finally collapse over 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,
these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance ;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy,
From apathy to dependence,
From dependence back into bondage."
Professor
Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law,
Population of counties won by:
Gore
127 million Bush 143 million
square miles of land won by: Gore 580,000 Bush
2,427,000
States won by: Gore 19 Bush 29
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 encompassed those citizens living in government
owned tenements and living off government welfare..."
Olson believes the