Life with Uncle Dave

I’m a crotchety old Man living on Social Security and my wits in a trailer in the woods of Alabama. In this Blog you are likely to find ponderings and complaints about medical treatment in America, Stories about my friends and family, Rants about the economy and lots of stuff about J. Edgar Dogg, my best friend and the dumbest animal in Alabama.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Inevitability

This is a bit of a departure for me. This is not my origional material and even though I am not a "Bush" fan I think it is certainly worth considering.
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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:

"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 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;

2. From spiritual faith to great courage;

3. From courage to liberty;

4. From liberty to abundance;

5. From abundance to complacency;

6. From complacency to apathy;

7. From apathy to dependence;

8. From dependence back into bondage

"Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

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 tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare..."

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

Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

PS . If the Senate grants Amnesty and citizenship to 20 million criminal invaders called illegals and they vote, then goodbye USA in less than 5 years.
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Uncle Dave

10 Comments:

At July 14, 2006 5:19 PM, Blogger Have Myelin? said...

Whoa....that's some interesting numbers. I *am* a Bush fan but that's not the topic.

You should come post on Dale's forum! :-)

 
At July 14, 2006 8:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The concept is interesting, but I believe the numbers are wrong or deceptive.
We seem to be going from apathy right into bondage.

 
At July 15, 2006 12:50 PM, Blogger Uncle Dave said...

The numbers are from the 2000 election and are essentially accurate but it’s what I construe them to mean that bothers me. If Bush is allowed to keep going with his “Let them in- Let them ALL in” policy than in five years Hugo Chavez will be running the country. We need to construct “The Great Wall of Mexico” on our southern border, and not allow one more Mexican into this country until they change their laws such that U.S. Citizens have the same rights in Mexico as Mexican Citizens have in the U.S. AND, A child born to illegal immigrant parents in the U.S. should not be automatically a citizen of the U.S. As they say in Alabama, “Just cauz the cat has kittens in the oven, that don’t make em biscuits.” You can bet that if a child of American parents were born in their home country he or she would not enjoy the rights of citizenship there.

 
At July 16, 2006 9:13 AM, Blogger Have Myelin? said...

I agree with your statement re: the illegal immigrants. I want only legal immigrants (why have a law if you aren't going to enforce it?) and I do not want this country to become "Spanglish" so to speak...

Granting amnesty and citizenship to illegal immigrants is wrong. Just plain wrong!

 
At July 17, 2006 1:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Then the enforcing needs to be toward the businesses who hire illegal immigrants. they put up billboards in Mexico inviting them here. That can't be right.
But the really important thing is for Mexico to get an economy, so they can happily stay home.

 
At July 17, 2006 3:46 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I asked my partner, Joyce, to comment on this post, and here is what she said:



Historically there has never been a case of a democracy voting itself too much from the

national treasury. –

Any possible democracies that may have existed before the US died because they abandoned

democracy in favor of fascism (Imperial Rome comes to mind) (Germany before WWII is good also)



Greece gave too much power to Alexander and that weakened it resulting in it’s fall. Empire is

profitable for some but eventually it drains the treasury of the occupiers. US in Iraq, Russia in Afghanistan etc…

(not that the USSR was a Democracy but imperialism and fascism is the culprit here not democracy. )

1-8 below is not really substantiated by any history I know.



As for the statistics on the 2000 election --- As we all should know statistics can be made to say what ever

you want them to. Most rural people voted for Bush because they as subjected to a very narrow range of political news and opinion.

The raw land area is not much of a measure of anything anyway. Large Ranch owners are very conservative business owners and

much of the land is corporate owned no surprise here.



Gore won the popular vote and that really should be the measure of an election.



The county by county stats are really worthless as a measure of anything. If you win

a lot of very sparsely populated counties you are representing a very small number of people.



I do agree that most people in the US are apathetic politically. But it’s not democracy that is driving that.

It’s a capitalist consumer culture that is fostering an apolitical group of people. The ruling elite doesn’t want

political competition to its rule. That is antithetical to the participatory nature of modern democracy. A significant portion of the

younger generation is reviving a civil spirit of participation.



As for calling illegal aliens “criminal invaders” that seems over the top. They want to work and live better. Mexico and

other states should provide better opportunities for it ‘s citizens. There is no Canadian invasion. Europeans aren’t coming here much

anymore.



More silly right-wing clap-trap

-J

 
At July 17, 2006 11:45 AM, Blogger Uncle Dave said...

If you can't do any better than "More silly right-wing clap-trap" Please don't bother to respond again.

 
At July 17, 2006 10:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Does that mean you didn't read the rest of it? It responded to the thing you posted. Pretty much line by line. ok, the last line was gratuitous. But it was also pretty mild.
Anyway, I won't share any more of her ideas with you if you prefer that.

 
At July 19, 2006 7:16 PM, Blogger Have Myelin? said...

Hmmm....I voted for Bush but no one would say I have a "narrow range of political news and opinion." Perhaps it's just what I believe?

I believe in the electoral voting system as it keeps the balance of power in check between the small states (namely "unimportant" states like Wyoming...) and California. Why should California, Ohio, and New York get all the fun?

I don't understand stuff like "capitalist consumer culture" cuz well, without that we'd have no economy. Thank God for capitalists. They buy goods, which keep factories humming....and housing going, and furniture stores booming, and you get the picture!

I'll stop now, I haven't changed any minds. :-)

 
At July 20, 2006 1:21 PM, Blogger Uncle Dave said...

KIM<
You're right. I responded to only a very small inconsaquential part of Joyce's post. My only excuse is that that was the only part that I could find fault with. The rest of it made sense. I'm sorry, Please keep posting.

 

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