As Edmond Burke said 250 years ago, “Those that don’t know history are doomed to repeat it”. Therefore we should all pay attention to John Adams’ warning “There hasn’t been a democracy yet that hasn’t committed suicide”. I have been to John Adam’s home and saw his library of 14,000 books that he used to study the 2,400 year history of democracy (at his time) to understand why every democracy eventually failed and the average life of a democracy is 200 years. He did this to help him write the Massachusetts Constitution which was a foundation of the U.S. Constitution. John Adams knew the risk of democracy and he said that he would be thrilled if ours lasted 150 years!
The bottom line is that all democracies are fragile and doomed to eventual failure. Alexander Tytler who lived at the same time as our Founding Fathers also studied the history of democracies and identified the repetitive pattern of failure called the Tytler Curve which you can see below. It should scare the heck out of everybody because it is so logical and we can easily understand that pattern. Take a look at the Tytler Cycle and ask yourself where America is right now on that cycle:
As the truth comes out about the Obama regime’s and the Democrat’s attempt to overthrow a duly elected president by the illegal and massive abuse of power through the “Russian Collusion Hoax”, the treasonous and unconstitutional Democrat “Impeachment Charade”, and the Democrats attempt to try and convert America into a socialist nation; those of us that have passionately studied history know how this movie eventually ends. As a passionate student of history I feel that it is my civic duty to share what I have learned as a warning to all my fellow Americans so we can work together to protect our magnificent republic from the same ending of every democracy for the last 2,600 years.
As you look at the Tytler Curve it is easy to see how America’s history follows that curve. Our bondage under Britain and our nation’s faith in “Providence” gave our Founding Fathers the courage to risk their lives for freedom. Beating all the odds they won and then wrote a magnificent Constitution with a Bill of rights that did not create a typical democracy, instead they created a republic with a Bill of Rights. Thomas Jefferson best summarized what they learned from history which led them to a republic when he said “ Democracy is nothing more than mob rule in which 51% of the people can take everything away from the 49%”. Or as Benjamin Franklin helped to explain the difference when he said “Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty (a republic) is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote”. That brought us liberty!
Our magnificent republic then became the most powerful and prosperous nation on Earth. Thus our liberty then created abundance just as the curve predicted. But as history has shown, abundance eventually leads to selfishness, which then leads to complacency and apathy. Just look at our poor voter turnout over the last few years which is the definition of apathy and complacency! Sadly, too many of our politicians realized that many of the people were willing to trade independence for “Free bread and circuses” as Edward Gibbons wrote in his great book “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” written around 1776 which many of our Founding Fathers read. Our Founding Fathers understood what Gibbons meant when he said that “The insidious poison of free bread and circuses led to the collapse of Rome”. Today we call that welfare and socialism. Sadly, more and more Americans are willing to trade their independence for welfare and government hand outs that make them dependent on corrupt politicians.
Take another look at the Tytler Cycle. Today a huge percentage of Americans are now dependent on government programs to survive from welfare to Medicaid and Medicare. Democrats today want to have a national guaranteed income and free healthcare, free college, and free everything! That folks is the definition of “The insidious poison of free bread and circuses” that Edward Gibbons wrote about 250 years ago which killed the Roman Empire. Once you know the background of the history of democracy and see the Tytler Cycle, I don’t know how anybody couldn’t come to the conclusion that we are at the edge of government dependence. Bondage is then the next phase which is the death of democracy and freedom.
Folks, we are at the edge. Between this horrible COVID 19 disaster which has put 33.5 million Americans out of work and the growing dependence of so many Americans on government handouts and vulnerable to the Democrat’s goal of turning America into a socialist nation, we are at the very edge of bondage.
In my opinion, the 2020 elections will determine if we maintain our freedom and our wonderful republic or if we turn into a socialist nation that puts us in bondage and under the control of the government. A perfect example of this disaster today is Venezuela. My favorite international distributor was in Venezuela. I met him 25 years ago and he was proud of his country and enthusiastic about its future because of its vast oil reserves. Then tragically the Venezuelan people elected a socialist dictator who promised “Free bread and circuses”. Eventually Venezuela collapsed and the average Venezuelan lost 22 pounds because there was no food to buy and 15% fled their country. The last time I saw him before I retired 12 years ago he was in my office weeping because he and his family had to flee his country! It broke my heart.
So consider all this and what you are watching on the news every day as 33.5 million Americans are out of work and Democrats are pitching socialism and “The Green New Deal” which is total government control of every aspect of our lives and then look at the Tytler Curve one more time. Do you think it is time to protect our great Republic and Freedom? If you do, then you must vote for freedom and our magnificent Republic in the 2020 elections and vote against those that are trying to enslave you with “Free bread and circuses”!
To give you a little more perspective, here is a brief summary of Alexander Tyler’s historic perspective . Just remember he wrote this around 250 years ago! He was right then and he is right now. Can we learn from the past?
Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee
The following quotation has been attributed to Tytler:
A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith 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 into bondage.
