“Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to eat for dinner.” – Winston Churchill
America is today suffering the consequences of our unfounded and foolish assumption that we are a Democracy. Even though the word democracy never appears anywhere in any of our founding documents; and our fathers and many political philosophers and economists have warned against the innately destructive power of democracy, we have nonetheless been pummeled senseless with the term.
"Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship." - William Blum
The rabid hostility of debates over Health Care reform and Immigration; the unsustainable burden of massive entitlement programs and state interventions in economic and social affairs; corporate bailouts, global military interventions; ethics scandals and political corruption; are all linked to the unconstitutional, immoral, economically destructive and ill-fated mob tyranny of Democracy. It divides us against one another as parasite and host; haves and have-nots; producer and dependent; inverting the natural hierarchy of merit by exalting the inept and debasing the capable.
When one group can usurp the rights of another group, merely on the pretext that they have larger numbers, it is not the rule of law, but the rule of the mob; it is barbarism. When the awesome coercive might of the government is employed to forcibly expropriate funds from one segment of society and give them to another; then the legislative process becomes a lottery rigged by cronyism, bribery and favor-trading.
When any group holds unequal sway over the exercise of law, then they will inevitably use that power to obtain unequal advantage over those not so favored. Throughout human history, the group which has commonly enjoyed such an advantage has been the aristocracy.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury." - Alexander Tyler (in his 1770 book, Cycle of Democracy)
With the rise of the American Ideal of Capitalism, lawful equality and individual liberty; the traditional aristocracy lost its long-standing advantage. But through Democracy it has now regained its privileged status by deception and enticement. Through deft manipulation of class-envy, prejudice and greed, the new oligarchy manufactures majority consent for the abandonment of Constitutional restraint and the imposition of a redistributive pecking order.
This Democratic oligarchy provides immunity to their secret moneyed constituency; favoritism for their dependent chattel and grinds the under-represented middle class between the millstones of taxation, inflation, misplaced compassion and guilt. The truly insidious nature of this process is that the oligarchy ultimately decides what choices are and are not to be put before bewildered voters as well as the talking points of debate. In this process they maintain control under the pretense of public mandate.
"The essence of constitutionalism...is...to stipulate that certain things are impermissible, no matter how large and fervent a majority might want them." - George Will
As the chickens of Democracy come home to roost, our generation is required to pick up the tab for past mistakes. We are confronted with unsustainable entitlements, swamped with debt, and facing the contraction of economic options. Whether we maintain our oblivious denial or recommit to a sober assessment of facts, we face the looming consequences of a massive dependent population and a shrinking capacity to support them.
We must choose, as soon as possible, between two distasteful options. One is the continuation of the status quo, blithely inviting potentially irreversible economic collapse (which will abruptly end one kind of insanity and replace it with another); or a similarly painful but more rational restructuring of our economic and political model to dramatically cut costs (which will still leave millions bereft of the support they have come to expect).
Judging by the current administration, the latter option seems unlikely. Instead of reigning in spending and focusing sober deliberation on the long-term challenges we face; Washington is locked in a cannibalistic feeding frenzy, fighting to consume the dwindling remains of our once wealthy nation.
"As democracy is perfected, the office of president [and Congress] represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House [and Congress] will be adorned by downright moron[s]." - H.L. Mencken
This is not a time for faint hearts or foggy logic. It is a time for sound morals, clear thinking, hard choices, and definitive action. Politics as usual will fail us. We must install a new breed of statesmen, with the courage to address difficult issues and the integrity to speak honestly to the people about the realities we face. The current crop of panderers and opportunists must be ousted, for it is their agenda that has brought us to this intolerable condition.
Our only sane option is to first, admit that we must initiate a radical return to our original system of government; a fundamental shift in our cultural paradigm and a dramatic restructuring of our economic policies. The next step must be to determine a coordinated, strategic retreat from Collectivist ideologies of Democracy and return to the thrift, self-reliance and personal responsibility fostered by the structure of the Constitutional Republic.
The care for our family and neighbors must be shouldered by us as individuals and communities, eschewing the government middlemen and the illusion of irresponsibility they perpetuate. All of the care, support, protection and education now provided by the state mechanism of redistribution must again be born locally and first-hand. It always has been anyway; only in an impersonal manner that only serves to alienate us from one another. Any delay will only make things worse.
"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."
– Winston Churchill
To those who wish to hold on to the illusion of Democracy and the doctrine of Collectivism, your time has come. You must make the choice to admit the fallacy of your evil creed; cast off the chains of dependency; rise above the poison of class envy and join the brotherhood of Americans in a celebration of the only equality possible in this world – the equality of objective merit, impartial justice and the unfettered competition of the free-market of ideas and commerce. If you are afraid of such a reality, have courage. If the practice of spiritual, intellectual and economic cannibalism is dearer to you than liberty, prosperity and justice, we leave you with the words of Samuel Adams:
"If you love wealth more than liberty; the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
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