Author Topic: Thomas Sowell: "Degeneration of Democracy"  (Read 1129 times)

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Offline Chris_

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Thomas Sowell: "Degeneration of Democracy"
« on: June 22, 2010, 01:33:26 PM »
http://townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/2010/06/22/degeneration_of_democracy

Quote
When Adolf Hitler was building up the Nazi movement in the 1920s, leading up to his taking power in the 1930s, he deliberately sought to activate people who did not normally pay much attention to politics. Such people were a valuable addition to his political base, since they were particularly susceptible to Hitler's rhetoric and had far less basis for questioning his assumptions or his conclusions.

"Useful idiots" was the term supposedly coined by V.I. Lenin to describe similarly unthinking supporters of his dictatorship in the Soviet Union.

Put differently, a democracy needs informed citizens if it is to thrive, or ultimately even survive. In our times, American democracy is being dismantled, piece by piece, before our very eyes by the current administration in Washington, and few people seem to be concerned about it.

The president's poll numbers are going down because increasing numbers of people disagree with particular policies of his, but the damage being done to the fundamental structure of this nation goes far beyond particular counterproductive policies.

Just where in the Constitution of the United States does it say that a president has the authority to extract vast sums of money from a private enterprise and distribute it as he sees fit to whomever he deems worthy of compensation? Nowhere.

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Balance at link......

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Offline DumbAss Tanker

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Re: Thomas Sowell: "Degeneration of Democracy"
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2010, 01:58:28 PM »
Every system has its Achilles' heel, in democracy that weak point is the possibility of going for the absolute lowest common denominator by purchasing their loyalty at the expense of those with fewer votes.
Go and tell the Spartans, O traveler passing by
That here, obedient to their law, we lie.

Anything worth shooting once is worth shooting at least twice.