Do We Want Democracy?

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most from the public treasury with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship." - Alexander Tyler

I think we're closing fast

I wonder, as President, could someone issue an executive order and, say, outlaw the IRS, send the Toons into exile or make English the official language?

I don't think so. No. Yes.

Disbanding the IRS would require the formal repeal of the 16^th amendment. I don't think that can be done by EO. You might be able to get away with it in a formal emergency, but I'm not sure. Exiling the Clintons can't be done without due process being followed. As despicable as they are, they are entitled as American citizens to their day in court. Making English the official language is legal and has a precedent.

My recommendation: come up up with some sort of methodology in which the right to vote is linked to a personal history of being a tax-paying citizen. No Pay, No Play!

That's a start. I wouldn't be adverse to multiple franchises being given, proportional of course, to how much tax is being paid. A taxpayer paying $100,000 in taxes deserves more of a say than a taxpayer paying $10,000, for example.

Other things would be automatic sunset clauses for all laws. If a law isn't good enough to be repeatedly voted for, it isn't good enough to stay a law. 2/3 or 3/4 super-majority vote required for all new taxes and spending bills. I'd also like to see a literacy test applied before a representative votes on a bill. In order to vote on a piece of legislation, the representative must first pass a comprehensive test on it. If a bill isn't good enough to be read, or clear enough to be understood it should be rewritten until it is. An alternative would be to have a word cap of a certain small amount. ie. no single bill can contain, say more than 1000 words. The omnibus 1000 page multipurpose bills that we voted against when we voted for the Contract With America still plague us.

No politician could ever get away with ending the welfare state. It can't happen until the government goes bankrupt I think. It can't happen until there is simply no more money for the government to spend and Big Government simply collapses. Only then can the Constitutional Republic be restored. It seems to me extremely unlikely that the scope of change now needed can come about within the framework of our current political system.

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