Why Democracy Doesn't Work

It pains me when I hear President Bush and so many others talk about the need to spread democracy around the world.

America's founders knew what a rotten and corrupt system of government democracy was and did everything in their power to ensure our country would never become one.

Why is democracy rotten and corrupt?

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

"Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage."

Even though no one is certain who first spoke or penned this statement, truer words were never uttered.

Democracy just plain doesn't work. And it inevitably leads to tyranny.

In fact, America reached a critical breaking point in this process last month.

Gary Shilling, an economist in Springfield, N.J., released a study noting that 52.6 percent of Americans "now receive significant income from government programs."

That's 52.6 percent — more than a majority.

Just seven years ago, just about the time George Bush was preparing to enter the White House as a Republican president promising "compassionate conservatism," that number was 49.4 percent — still way too high, far too close to that breaking point, but at least slightly less than a majority.

Go back a little further in time to 1950, and the number was a mere 28.3 percent.

How far and how fast into the depths of dependency Americans have fallen!

So where are we on that timeline to tyranny?

"From apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage."

That is not very reassuring for the preservation of freedom.

It is not very promising for an immediate rebirth of freedom. It is not very reassuring for an expansion of freedom and liberty in America any time soon.

And chances are, with the results of last year's congressional elections installing into power a party that seems openly to embrace dependency as a method of capturing and retaining power, things are going to get worse before they get better.

Think about this as the 2008 elections get nearer.

It does not bode well for us.

According to the inherent truth above, the only place to go from here is bondage.

Whether it was Alexis de Tocqueville who said it, or Alexander Tytler, or Alexander Tyler, or Arnold Toynbee or Lord Thomas Macaulay — all of whom have been credited with parts of the statement — the simple truth of the observation is undeniable.

America has reached a critical breaking point. America has crossed a major divide. America has peaked.

Will we learn from history? Is it too late to reverse course? Will we defy the odds? Will we be the exception that proves the rule?

I sure hope so, but how are we going to outvote people whose livelihoods and slothfulness depend on casting ballots for the masters who serve them their slop?

To find out more about Joseph Farah, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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