Thursday, December 6, 2012

I Love Democracy

Actually, I don’t.  I can’t stand it.  If a country gives mediocrity, stupidity, and wickedness the vote, then a country will end up with mediocrity, stupidity, and wickedness in power.  One only needs to look at places like Washington, D.C., Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and the whole state of California to see the truth in that.  The American Founding Fathers, contrary to almost universal belief, did not establish a democracy in America; most of them despised it.  They established an aristocracy of merit, far and away the best form of government possible—let people who have proven their virtue and ability be given the vote and political power.  It didn’t work, but then, they tried, destroyed by Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and…democracy.

My abhorrence to democracy is not unknown to the regular readers of my writings.  In this article, I have a few quotes from some folks in history about democracy that I would like to share.  Fascinating thoughts from perceptive minds…

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.  Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.”—Benjamin  Franklin  The “tyranny of the majority” is a familiar phrase to America’s founders.  In a democracy, since the majority rules, what is to prevent 51% of the people from passing laws that deny the other 49% their rights?  Or, what is to prevent the majority from voting money out of the hands who have earned it and giving it to themselves?  This is freedom?  This is wisdom?  This is good government?

Incidentally, Bob Costas, you and your liberal buddies are not getting our guns.  It’s the only protection we have from you and…democracy.   The well-armed lamb….

I love this one:  “The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.”—Winston Churchill   Can you say, “Obamaphone”?  How, how, HOW can a country give the vote to a person like that and expect progress, strength, virtue, and success?  It can’t happen.  The right to vote is not a natural right, because the right to vote gives a person the right to rule somebody else, and nobody is born with that right.  It has to be earned, and it has to be earned through industry, wisdom, morality, frugality, and success.  Those are the virtues a country should want ruling it, not covetousness, laziness, profligacy, licentiousness, and failure.

“It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law.  This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.”—James Fenimore Cooper  This is brilliant.  The most critical thing, the most crucial element, of any government is to acknowledge there is a God Who has established eternal moral laws for the direction of mankind on earth.  When a country sets that aside, and allows majority opinion to define morality and law, then every kind of vice known to man will plague a people--vices such as abortion, homosexual “marriage”, theft in the name of “sharing the wealth,” and a thousand other such practices that are destroying the fiber and foundation of the United States.  People need guidance.  They need God.  “It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps,” Jeremiah said (10:23).  Democracies invariably set aside the laws of God for the opinions of man; they don’t have to do that, but they do.  History conclusively shows that the majority will ultimately nearly always be wrong, and that is why they cannot be trusted with political power.  But then, for that matter, nobody should be entrusted with too much political power.  It is too intoxicating an evil for most humans to control.

“Democracy is the road to socialism.”—Karl Marx  I need a little time to develop this theme—which is absolutely the truth—but for now, I will only say that, since equality (not freedom) is the guiding principle of both democracy and socialism, then it is never a surprise when democracies end up tending towards socialism.  All Marxists certainly know this; that is why the communist dictatorships usually call(ed) themselves “The People’s Republic” and say they are establishing true democracy.  Many, many of my students, who have, of course, been trained in the Chinese education (propaganda) system, actually believe that their country is a democracy.

Democracy, in theory, sounds so good with its talk of freedom, equality, and rights for the people.  But theory and the practice have been widely separate.  The current debased, debauched, licentious condition of the United States is almost totally the fault of democracy.  You give the masses the vote, and you take God away from them, and the conclusion is inevitable.  It has been written in history many times before.