Have we learned our lesson yet?.....

Just something to remember:

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have."

Thomas Jefferson


      One of the people who commented on my prior posting about the budget, had stated that the politicians are trying to gather up potential voters.  it was a very good comment left so I figured I would post on something that I have espoused in the past, but never posted.
    In the beginning of the republic we had part time legislatures on session.  Here in GA we have the gold dome posse meet for 40 days to handle the states business.  We in GA know that for 40 days the hookers will be busy with them and since they are in session for 40 days, they cannot cause too much mischief.
    Now we have full time busy bodies in DC trying to justify their salaries and benefits by trying to pass all kinds of laws and regulations to fill in their time while they are getting paid and have lobbyist wine and dine them with booze and women trying to promote their pet agenda.  We need to have our congress back home to really get the pulse of their state rather than the skewed view they get in DC in the strange atmosphere that resides there.
     And since I am ranting I will mention another belief, I believe that we need to restrict the voter requirements.  Now I will take a page out of Robert E Heinlein on Starship Troopers, that only citizens can vote and only way to be a citizen is to serve military, but I would expand it for those that cannot serve in the military for health reasons, that they serve in another capacity on the red cross or something along that line.  If you are willing to lay your life down if it is necessary to do so, than you will have the ability to look at the interest of society as a whole rather than your own interest.
            Alexander Tyler wrote the following quote:
       

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.

 I believe that we are in the apathy/complacency stage.


     This was written by Alexander Tyler, An Englishman, people think that it was written about the United States, actually it was written back in the 18th century to discuss the fall of the Athenian Republic.
  And I have fear for our republic and what kind of nation that we as a society will leave for our children