[SOC] A Word from the OTHER Side

[W2AGN]

Since the liberal left got in their "Bush-bashing" earlier, let me pass thi=
s=20
along as a comment from the Republican side.

At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in
the year 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 due to loose fiscal
policy, (which is) always
followed by a dictatorship."

"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of
history, has been about 200 yea rs. During those 200 years, these nations
always progressed through the following sequence:

=46rom Bondage to spiritual faith;

=46rom spiritual faith to great courage;

=46rom courage to liberty;

=46rom liberty to abundance;

=46rom abundance to complacency;

=46rom complacency to apathy;

=46rom apathy to dependence;

=46rom 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=3D127 million
Bush=3D143 million

Square miles of land won by:

Gore=3D580,000
Bush=3D2,2427,000

States won by:

Gore=3D19
Bush=3D29

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:

Gore=3D13.2
Bush=3D2.1

Professor Olson adds:

"In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned
by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. 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
"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.
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John W2AGN
http://w2agn.net