We think of our great country, we Americans do, as a Democracy.
The fact of the matter is that America is really not a democracy but rather a:
REPUBLIC.
America is a sophisticated system of government, political authority spread about, exercised by different entities and branches of government and most importantly, the governmental system known as Federalism which consists of a federal government on the one hand and state governments, autonomous with considerable independent political authority.
The Founding Fathers were very suspicious of human kind, little trust in some cases, with regards to the integrity of men and women who would run the government and the Founding Fathers in the CONSTITUTION divided power four ways creating a Senate, a House of Representatives, a President and a Federal Judiciary. For, they thought, independent and self-functioning branches of government would act as a considerable check and balance and no one entity or person would ever be able to exercise control, real control.
But democracy underlay government at every level, Federal and State. Democratic principles center around essential, indispensable and inalienable freedoms such as speech, press, religion, assembly and petition were indeed the most important. The government envisioned by the founders was based on those essential freedoms and in fact had no structure or substance without them. The democratic republic they envisioned for WE THE PEOPLE was however a most fragile concept easily tarnished or done away with in whole or in part by power hungry politicians or by those who very much wanted a different form of government for our country. Democracy, this noble experiment, required a vigilant, pro-active, wary citizenship, ready to protect and defend this governmental form and the essential freedoms it espoused even with the very lives of the citizenry as occurred in revolutionary days. America was founded as a political entity by those who were in fact willing to give their lives for the freedoms they wanted so badly. We the people live today as we do because of them.
President Ronald Reagan told us so very clearly that:
FREEDOM IS ONLY ONE GENERATION AWAY FROM EXTINCTION!
How right he was. It seems as though everywhere, Federal, State and local governments as they are, essential freedoms are eliminated, curtailed or just simply ignored. Men and women once empowered do as they please, so many without regard to the law or the Constitution and the DEMOCRACY, the democratic republic in which we live has never been more in danger of that extinction Reagan warned against. This unique, fragile democracy of ours, this democratic republic may well be on its last legs. The forces of change, radical change, determined to introduce a virulent socialism, or perhaps even a Marxism or at the extreme some form of dictatorship seem to be winning.
In 1887, Alexander Tytler, a Scottish history professor at University of Edinburgh said this about Democracy:
“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 some form of dictatorship.”
Scary words are they not? Professor Tytler states emphatically that any democracy, such as the Athenian Republic is always temporary. It simply cannot survive long term. It cannot exist as a permanent form of government! America, therefore, as it is constituted, simply cannot survive and, says Tytler, the cause of our political death will be:
MONEY!
Loose Fiscal Policy. Rampant spending. Graphed, Bribes, Pork. Deceit and dishonest financial dealings. Incredible inflation. The combination of these Fiscal factors will be the end of the American Democracy we now know and love. That is happening at an
unbelievable pace today, TODAY! It is here and now. It isn’t coming sometime in the future. THE BEGINNING OF THE ENDING OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY – REPUBLIC HAS BEGUN!
Professor Alexander Tytler of Edinburgh University goes on to state the following:
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.”
America, THE CITY ON A HILL has been alive and well for:
245 YEARS
Our great country has existed 45 years longer than the average age of historical democratic governments. Tytler, guided by historical precedent, would see the soon end of our great civilization and our magnificent country.
Then Professor Tytler gives us a timeline as to the course of democracy from its beginning to its ending. In those 200 years, the average age of the survival of the democratic form of government, Tytler identifies nine different stages which characterize the government.
The first is:
BONDAGE.
Men and women live politically under the iron hand of others. There is no freedom of any kind. They live under the political yoke of others.
But then comes the second stage:
SPIRITUAL FAITH.
Revival happens. Those enslaved are energized by spirituality. They are ready to do whatever is required to shake off the bondage.
And that spiritual faith leads to the next phase:
GREAT COURAGE.
Men and women become bearing, willing to risk all, putting all on the alter in the hunt and fight for freedom. They will not live under bondage any longer.
And this courage and the action which follows produces the next great stage of the newly arriving civilization:
LIBERTY!
Men and women achieve what they want most in life, LIBERTY AND FREEDOM. They become masters of themselves, forming their own governments, establishing laws and constitutions which protect and defend that liberty.
Then, from that liberty comes the next great phase of civilization:
ABUNDANCE.
Professor Tytler sees the creation of wealth, abundant goods and services, significantly increased lifestyles, the good life virtually everywhere.
Then from this state of abundance comes the next phase of the ever–evolving democracy, our democratic way of life:
COMPLACENCY.
We begin to assume, take for granted. We become lazy in protection. We would rather live the good life than the politically active. Morals loosen. The rule of law is weakened. The Constitution is watered down. Complacency rules.
Then, from complacency comes APATHY. We become indifferent, ignoring reality, real problems, real threats and we refuse to respond to the demands of democracy for protection and defense. The conscious adopts a SO WHAT or WHO CARES attitude and democracy wanes.
Then, from apathy comes DEPENDENCE. We the people become dependent upon government, upon others, ruled by BIG, whether government, corporations, churches and religious institutions, banks and financial institutions and more. There is at first a gradual loss of freedom, but then rapid. We become immune, indifferent having lost so much spiritual faith, courage and a real concern for the liberty our forefathers fought for. That can happen in one generation, freedoms lost and of course once lost, are lost forever.
Finally, says Tytler, that once great democracy, that experiment in freedom, now in a state of DEPENDENCE reverts back into BONDAGE. That is of course a loss of democracy, a loss of freedom. There comes in its place socialism, or Marxism, or an oligarchy, or in a worse case scenario, a dictatorship. We the people lose our desire, courage, spiritual faith so necessary for the protection of our democratic way of life. Our generation could well be the one, as President Reagan so well said, which is responsible for the loss, the extinction of FREEDOM. We now exist, we Americans, Tytler would say in the state of complacency heading toward if not altogether in the state of APATHY.
Are we, are we my fellow Americans in a state of apathy? Do we not care about our great country, our democratic way of life, our freedoms, our Constitution, all that America has been or at least stood for for the past 245 years. Are we indeed complacent, apathetic, unconcerned, unwilling to fight the fight of freedom, of democracy, are we? Are you? Are we the proud American people willing to revert back to a state of dependence, dependence upon government which will eventually put us back into the BONDAGE which we fought to throw off 245 years ago? It can easily appear that way. So few of us are willing to put our all on the alter of freedom, unwilling in so many ways to do what is required to really make certain that America remains free, truly and in fact:
THE LAND OF THE BRAVE AND THE FREE.
We must end, and end now any form of political complacency, any form of political apathy or indifference. We must not allow any form of dependence to occur in our great country, and to us. We must reidentify, protect and defend the freedoms of our great Constitution, the essential staples, the structure, the substance of our way of life. We do that now, we prevent the loss of those freedoms for if they are in fact once lost:
THEY ARE LOST FOREVER.
Stand up, my fellow Americans, stand up now and do so with all your might. Be energized by spiritual faith. Allow that to turn into great courage to do whatever is required. Reidentify and protect and defend the liberty we now begin to take for granted, with complacency and apathy. Remember the price that has been paid throughout those 245 years to protect, preserve and defend that freedom, that liberty. If we don’t, back into some awful form of bondage we go, for:
FREEDOM ONCE LOST IS LOST FOREVER!
Your call, your life. WHAT WILL YOU DO?
