Tag Archives: Democracy

AMERICA LOST THE ELECTION

When as man as dishonest as any who has ever held the office, with an economic record as dismal as that of the last four years, a man who refused to wear a flag pin on his lapel because he disdains the country he aspires to lead, a man who chose as his mentor a preacher who called in no uncertain terms upon God to bring damnation on America, when the people elect and then re-elect such a man to the Presidency you know you are no longer living in the land envisioned by the founders.  You are no longer living in an America as you have always known it.

Tuesday marked the start of the Post-American period for the United States.  Benjamin Franklin feared it; sages from Aristotle to Tocqueville predicted it; Democracy guaranteed it; too few people understand it; Barack Obama neither caused it nor led it.  He simply is presiding over the culmination of it.

It would take a thick book and a half to explain it but I will be foolish enough to try to do it in one paragraph.

Aristotle was the first to say that Democracy would bankrupt a society.  Karl Marx promoted the process with the populist theme “From each according to his ability to each according to his need.”  Today the same philosophy is expressed in the simple phrase Social Justice, which is defined as equal wealth for all.  Government is the vehicle for reaching that goal by taxing wealth away from those who produced it and re-distributing it to those who did not.  In any society achievers will be outnumbered by the masses and Aristotle warned that the masses would eventually deplete the national treasury by voting the wealth of the nation unto themselves and then squandering it.  He called it “the ultimate greed.”

It’s a slow process in a country with a large and prosperous middle class.  Freedoms must be taken away slowly and dependence created gradually.  It has been said that “The American people would never vote for socialism, but under the name of liberalism the American people would adopt every fragment of the socialist program.”  If Socialism is the ultimate greed then Obamacare was the ultimate deception.  It’s primary purpose was dependance, not healthcare.

How will it all end?  That’s the ultimate question.  Democratic countries like Spain, France and Greece have been ravished by overspending.  Unemployment is worse than it is in the United States.  The governments are literally running out of money to pay for benefits the people have come to believe really are entitlements.  The people riot, demonstrate and take to the streets demanding change then vote for a man like Hollande who promises to bring about the desired change by accelerating the very policies that caused the problem in the first place.

I am 81 years of age and will never know how it ends, but my grandchildren will.  That’s why my tagline reads “Driven by love of country and concern for its people, both present and yet to be.”

WHY ARE OBAMA’S VOTER POLLS SO STRONG WHEN HIS RECORD IS SO BAD? Part II

In our first post exploring the dichotomy between Obama’s poor record and strong support we explained that with true believers his record doesn’t count.  He’s a Democrat and he is black, and that is good enough.  But there is another and more disturbing reason for the apparent dichotomy.  We are approaching Tocqueville time in America.

The answer may lie in the very nature of democracy itself.  If that’s the case, we can’t say we weren’t warned.  Aristotle said democracy would lead to great corruption.  Plato warned that the demos (the masses) lacked sufficient understanding to differentiate the charmers from the honest and capable candidates and they would choose the charmers.  Given the nature of man and the fact that in any society the masses will outnumber the elites, both philosophers held that democracy would lead to the demos voting largesse unto themselves from the nation’s accumulated wealth to the ultimate detriment of the entire society.

Aristotle and Plato did not have the benefit of history to confirm their opinions because democracy was a new concept in their day.  But Alexis de Tocqueville, a noted French writer and historian who came more than 2,000 years later did look back on the rise and fall of great empires some of which were limited democracies.

Tocqueville was born to French aristocracy and lived during the period of the French Revolution.  He was a keen observer of the American Experiment that combined free markets, rights to private property and a level of democracy theretofore unknown.  The young Frenchman noted at the time that the “experiment” was a great success.  However, as our long running sidebar suggests, he also warned that over time the public will vote themselves more and more benefits until the government’s treasury is depleted and the system collapses in fiscal insolvency.  Usually to be followed by some form of despotic governance.

Obama is a charmer, Romney is not.  Obama promises ever greater largesse to the people, Romney does not.  The combination of true believers and largesse voters forms a base of unwavering support.  The stable of true believers is relatively static; but the percentage of largesse voters grows over time.  The time Tocqueville gave for the American democracy to run its course was about 200 years; we are well beyond that.  The 2012 election will answer the question, have we reached Tocqueville time in America ?

WE ARE A REPUBLIC, NOT A DEMOCRACY

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%”.  Some credit that line to Thomas Jefferson, others say no.  But he might well have said it because the founding fathers decidedly did not form the country as a Democracy and for very good reason.  We were formed as a Republic.  Ben Franklin warned that we may not be able to hold it, but we have held it for nearly 240 years.  Now it is slipping away.

Our Republic is slipping into the Democracy the founders feared.  Democracy cedes the power to those candidates most capable of charming the people, not to the candidates most able (and honest) to govern.  There is a reason one of our political parties is called Democratic and the other Republican.  It is the same reason that Democrats seek to alter and diminish the Constitution while Republicans seek to conserve it.  The United States Constitution is a republican (small r) instrument.  Its provisions surrender simple majority rule to the wonderful concept of the separation of powers.  It is still government by the people but with added protection for the people from the government they elect.

Think about that as you watch the video.

EUROPE’S PROBLEM IS SO SIMPLE

Has anyone noticed that the problem in Europe is with governments, not the private sector?  Has anyone pointed this out?  Not that I have seen.  Economies are weak but not in recession, certainly not in depression.  It’s nations that are in virtual bankruptcy, not industry.

Bad planning, embezzlement, inefficiency, and over spending at a corporation will put the company out of business.  It creates a hardship, but only for the people who worked there and only until they find another job.  The process eliminates a poorly acting member of the economy and acts as a discipline and incentive for other members of the private sector to do better.  But when bad planning, corruption, inefficiency and over spending occur in a government, the government doesn’t go out of business, it increases taxes to pay for continuation of the same destructive pattern.  There is very little discipline to curb over spending in a democracy because the people vote for the candidate that promises the most and delivers the most of those very things that are the cause of the insolvency.

The problem is simple, too much government spending.  The solution is also simple; it’s just not palatable.  Churchill said it well with his inimitable wit, “Democracy is the worst form of government,…except all others”.

PAUL KRUGMAN GETS ONE RIGHT

Depression and Democracy is the title of Krugman’s column in the New York Times today.  I know little about the Hungarian political party known as Fidesz, but beyond that, what Krugman wrote was dead right as far as it went.  Democracy is under threat.

…the gravity of European political developments isn’t widely understood.

First of all, the crisis of the euro is killing the European dream. The shared currency, which was supposed to bind nations together, has instead created an atmosphere of bitter acrimony.

…a Europe-wide recession now looks likely

Europeans [are] furious at what is perceived, fairly or unfairly (or actually a bit of both), as a heavy-handed exercise of German power.

Nobody familiar with Europe’s history can look at this resurgence of hostility without feeling a shiver.

The ecojournalist doesn’t hesitate to use the H word either.  Krugman never was known for his political correctness, if you will pardon the pun.

…ominous political trends shouldn’t be dismissed just because there’s no Hitler in sight.

Now we must delve into uncertain territory, what the author thinks but doesn’t say.  Just which movement on the current scene does he think a figure like H best represents?  Krugman limits his remarks in the article to political parties in Europe.  Speaking domestically, would it be the Occupy movement or the Tea Party?

Spokesfolks from the left see the problems; they just don’t see the causes so they come to the wrong conclusions about the solutions.  They are looking at the malaise through a window when they should be using a mirror.

GROWTH OF GOVERNMENT IS DEMOCRACY’S DESTINY

The Vicious Cycle

No worker wants to see his employer downsized. Downsizing brings job insecurity and lessened opportunity for those employed. Government employees at all levels realize it’s the Democratic Party that fights for growth and expansion of government, and with it, security and opportunity for the government worker. The Democratic Party is the party for the government, of the government and by the government.

The rest of the people pay for the salaries and benefits enjoyed by government employees. The Republican Party calls for limited government, reduction of government expenditures and lower taxes. The Republican Party is the party of the rest of the people.

The recent passage of the 26 billion dollar funding bill is a prime example of the vicious cycle at work. It was promoted by the Administration as a bill to fund salaries for teachers, police, firemen and first responders, which indeed it was, government workers all.

The bigger government gets, the more people there are who vote for bigger government. Democracy is a fragile system. This is just one of its vulnerabilities.

STATE FUNDING BILL SPENDS 26B ON GOVERNMENT

The Democratic Party is the party of the government, for the government and by the government. The Republican Party is the party of the rest of the people.

Government is the civic worker’s employer. The Republican Party calls for downsizing of government. Downsizing brings job insecurity and lessened opportunity for workers on a government payroll. The Democratic Party, on the other hand, fights for growth and expansion of government. For those employed by government the Democratic Party offers greater job security and an increased measure of opportunity. Thus it is reasonable and natural that the Democratic Party would be the party of the government.

Today’s passage of the 26B dollar State funding bill is a prime example. It was promoted by the Administration as a bill to send money from the Federal government to the State governments for payment of salaries to teachers, police, firemen and first responders, government workers all.

The Republican Party argues for growth in all areas, except government. In the matter of job security, the Republican Party is the party of everyone other than government employees. In that sense, it is the party of the people.

Herein lie the makings of a vicious cycle. The bigger government gets, the more people there are who vote for bigger government. Democracy is a fragile system. This is just one of its vulnerabilities.

Bob B

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How to earn over $50,000 and pay no income tax

Get married and have two kids. Just one more thing, be typical. That is all you have to do.

More than one third of all income tax filers paid no federal income tax for the year 2008. When the returns for 2009 come in, the number will surely be higher. We are not talking about no additional tax with the return, we are talking about no tax, period. That means if tax was withheld from your pay check, either you got it all back in a refund or you did not make the list.

A typical family of four making less than $51,000 paid no tax at all for 2009 according to a report by The Tax Foundation. Furthermore, some of those non-payers got a “rebate” ( see my post on propagandic). In other words, some of your money, if you pay taxes, was given directly to someone who paid no taxes. This kind of rebate occurs only in the government sector. You cannot get a rebate on an automobile purchase unless you purchase an automobile.

It has been said that Democracy will continue to exist only until the majority of voters realize they can vote largesse for themselves from the government. Aristotle warned “If the majority distributes among itself the things of a minority, it is evident that it will destroy the city.” We are witnessing Democracy at the crossroads.

Bob B

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