The True Danger to Democracy isn't Trump, its Democrats

About this episode

The episode discusses the dangers to democracy, emphasizing the role of fiscal policy and government overreach.

Alexander Fraser Tytler was a judge, historian and professor of history in Scotland, born in 1747, who observed that, “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, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by dictatorship.” Tytler further observed, “The average of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back again to bondage.” Voting in largesse In this, America’s 250th year, we’ve beaten the average, but this sequence has a spooky resemblance to our trajectory and offers a dire warning. Our founders had the wisdom and foresight to craft a constitution designed to protect individual liberty and limit government. Government is necessary, but government isn’t society. It’s a subset of society and subservient to the…

People in this episode

Host: Independence Institute

Topics covered

• democracy
• politics
• government
• fiscal policy
• American Dream

Keywords

• democracy
• Tytler
• fiscal policy
• government
• American Dream
• liberty
• politics

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