The Problem with Democracy; America Can Vote Itself to Death

We are voting ourselves to death. The Democrats and too many complaisant Republicans are taking advantage of their “useful idiot” constituencies to enact policies that will destroy our way of life. That is the problem with Democracy. It has been pointed out that, “Democracy is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what’s for dinner.” That pretty much sums up the problem with majority rule. Our Founding Fathers were well aware of the dangers this could cause. That is why they modeled our government after the republic of Rome rather than the democracy of Athens.

Our Founders correctly distrusted the masses. Unlike too many of our leaders today they were well aware of basic human nature. They knew that people can’t always be counted on to do the right thing if something else serves their own immediate self-interest. Most people, by nature, will too often choose short term gratification rather than long term solutions.

The Founding Fathers also distrusted a strong, centralized Federal government. The Federal Government has grown increasingly powerful and intrusive in a myriad of ways that would have dismayed them. The current Executive branch has grown so arrogant that it routinely ignores the Constitution as it illegally issues executive orders and changes laws. The Judicial branch, especially under the Roberts’ Court, has made laws rather than ruled on their constitutionality as they were written. The Legislative branch is increasingly impotent. All this is possible because too many of the current American electorate is either ignorant or selfish. Sadly many are both. During the 2012 campaign Governor Romney was excoriated because he said that 47% of the electorate would vote for his opponent because they wanted to keep their benefits. He wasn’t wrong.

The Roman republic failed because strong men, generals like Sulla and Caesar, realized that their armies were the path to power. In the United States voters are the path to power. Politicians started pandering to voters to keep and gain power. Social Security, welfare, food stamps, Obama Care, and other such programs make those who receive government largess dependent on  the politicians who distribute them. The trouble, as Margaret Thatcher pointed out, is that sooner or later you run out of the money to provide the programs. We are currently close to $19 trillion in debt and are liable for over 200 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Yet our uniformed or short sighted electorate continues to select leaders who make matters worse. Again, we are voting ourselves to death.

After electing Obama twice and tax-and-spend neo-Cons before that it is probably already too late to prevent some pretty dire consequences in the not too distant future. This next election may be the last time we have a chance to outnumber the selfish or ignorant voters who either don’t care or don’t realize that they are paving the way to our ultimate destruction.

The Democrat Party hasn’t anyone willing to change the direction we’re going. Since they’ve been most responsible for what is happening in the first place, that’s not surprising. Not all the Republican candidates are likely to do more than slow the inexorable decline of our country. The informed electorate needs to unite behind one of the Republican candidates who can and will reverse the course we’re on. Whoever that may be, they need, we all need, to do everything we can to try and convince those who are merely ignorant and not hopelessly selfish to make the painful long-term decisions necessary to save our nation.

It is too early to determine who that candidate might be. The candidate that can shrink government, reform the tax code, cut back stifling relations, and stimulate the economy, also has to be electable. He or she will have to be very persuasive to overcome media bias and voter ignorance. Only with the help and a concerted effort from those voters who realize the consequences of continuing with the status quo can this happen. The future is truly at risk.