Name:	MAJ USA RET -	Reply
Subject:	Darwin and the Great Republic
Date:	3/4/2015 3:44:50 PM

It saddens me to realize that the ignorant and illiterate have the power to vote in a significant block such that our Constitution is effectively neutered with respect to acts of corruption against it. The separation of powers can no longer protect the citizens of our great nation. There is no longer any branch of government preserving and defending the founding document. Our own elected officials are granted self-aggrandizing status though the tossing of crumbs to the ignorant… whose fidelity lies not to their nation but to the purveyor of their favorite snake oil. 

The flaw in the Republic lies in the enfranchisement of the entitlement class. Those who do not work are allowed to vote. Of course they vote not only to entrench, but to increase, their forced largess… derived from the fruits of the labor and entrepreneur class(es). 

A successful species breeds exponentially. And so is the representation of the indigent in the pool of voters. 

Eventually the non-producers overwhelm the ability… and willingness… of the producers. The producers, being deprived of reward for their industry, either slow production… or depart for more favorable venues. The non-producers find that the teats have begun to dry up. They are being forcefully weaned… a trickle down consequence of their own indiscriminant behavior. Lacking industry and resourcefulness, they do not understand. They begin to fight (riot) around the common bowl. They demand that the producers come back… go back to work… turn the tap back on. 

It is too late. The system is already crippled beyond healing. 

As Charles Darwin observed, “Many species develop bizarre traits, just before they go extinct.” 

Witness what is happening in California and Illinois. 

Our Republic, exactly like that of Greece, is developing bizarre traits. We The People have ignored history… and unless We The People act like we are educated and connected with history… so shall befall us… THE LESSON OF GREECE. 

“Property is surely a right of mankind as really as liberty. ...but the time would not be long before courage and enterprise would come, and pretexts be invented by degrees, ... in sharing it equally with its present possessors. Debts would be abolished first; taxes laid heavy on the rich, and not at all on the others; and at last a downright equal division of everything be demanded, and voted. What would be the consequence of this? The idle, the vicious, the intemperate, would ... sell and spend all their share, and then demand a new division of those who purchased from them. Anarchy and tyranny commence.” [John Adams]

- - LMF Curmudgeon

Name:	MartiniMan -	Reply
Subject:	de Toqueville predicted just that
Date:	3/4/2015 4:40:52 PM

He understood that was the great weakness of a democratic republic, the inevitable recogniztion that the voter could attempt to live at the expense of someone else by selling their soul to politicians promising them access to the public treasury.  America was a great experiment and I am sad to say that human nature seems to have taken over to our overall detriment.  This country will not be able to return to greatness unless we recapture the spirit of our founding, which unfortunately relies on a populace that embraces those foudning principals.  

A lot of people think a transformational leader can accomplish that but I am less optimistic over time.  For every step forward it seems like we take two steps back.  Time will tell and I am still mildly optimistic but it will require a generational change because us baby boomers cannot be trusted to wake up.