Interesting political demographics

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinborough, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian republic some 2,000 years prior:

"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, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most recent Presidential election:

Population of counties won: by Gore, 127 million; by Bush, 143 million;

Square miles of land won: by Gore, 580,000; by Bush, 2,427,000;

States won: by Gore, 19; by Bush, 29;

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won: by Gore, 13.2; by Bush, 2.1.

Professor Olson adds, "In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was (mostly) the land owned by the tax-paying citizens of this greatcountry. Gore's territory encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare...

" Olson believes the U.S. is now somewhere between the "apathy" and the "complacency" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy; with some 40 percent of the nation's population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

[kitkat]

Thank you, HLL. This one is definitely bookmarked.

We need to fight harder, and HARDER to save what we have.

[TomGuy]

The classic: I don't know what apathy is, and I don't care.

[Wings-n-Wind]

Your usual excellence.... thanks for the post

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Thank you very much, I am very flattered.

[Congressman Billybob]

One slight caveat. The Constitution was not "accepted" by 13 states in 1787. It was proposed by 11 states that year. Rhode Island took no part in the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia, and the majority of the New York Delegation left in disgust on 10 July, 1787, having failed in repeated attempts to defeat the "Virgina Plan."

The Constitution went into effect in 1788, when 11 of the 13 states had ratified the document. Rhode Island refused even to conduct a ratification convention, and North Carolina's convention adjourned without decision, waiting for a Bill of Rights to be added to the Constitution. It was not until 1789, after Congress and George Washington had been elected, that the hold-out states did ratify and rejoin the union.

Trust me, I know these things.

Congressman Billybob

Click here to stick a thumb in the eye of CFR, "Hugh & Series, Critical & Pulled by JimRob."

[Domestic Church]

I was just discussing this quote with a friend before Christmas. I think governmental dependency is the stage we have entered with the multileveledgovernmental and social bureaucracy and those who try fight it are being harassed or sidelined.

[ken5050]

Excellent post, as always....let me add a brief, though, very apt example to your comments...On Sunday night, late, I was channel surfing, and C-span was showing a focus group done a week earlier with 16 likely Democrat voters from Ohio and Michigan. About half were government or non-profit employees, as usual, but a few points really jumped out.

Most of the issues of interest were all all domestic....jobs,health care, education...indeed, when asked which group of issues....global, i.e. Iraq, WMD, etc., or domestici.e. ehalth care, tax cuts, education was most important to them, it was 15-1 that the domestic agenda was most important to them in choosing a candidate...And this focus group was conducted ONE DAY AFTER Saddam Hussein was captured.So, go figure....

because of his military background!!!..again, go figure these folk. I can't..

The consensus of the discussion after, by the moderator and a panel of newspeople, (including Mark Shields and Gloria Borger) who had observed the focus group, was that Dean's support would prove to be much weaker nationally than has been thought so far....

[expat_panama]

"Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won: by Gore, 13.2; by Bush, 2.1"

Well said; great post.

[sarcasm]

Don't believe, or pass on, all you read

This was attributed to a Professor Joseph Olson at the Hamline University School of Law. I never heard of such a university, but went online and found it. And Prof. Olson does exist.

"Now I'm getting somewhere," I thought.

But in response to my e-mail, Olson said the "research" was attributed to him erroneously. He said it came from a Sheriff Jay Printz in Montana. I e-mailed Sheriff Printz, and guess what? He didn't do the research either, and didn't remember who had e-mailed it to him.

In other words, he got the same legend e-mailed to him and passed it on to Olson without checking it out, and when Olson passed it on, someone thought it sounded better if a law professor had done the research, and so it grew.

Who knows where it originally came from, but it's just not true.

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP - POLITICS