An Interesting Analysis of the Last Presidential Election

[southernleftylady]

This was just posted by a rightie
Got this on email this morning, thought I would share.


At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinborough) had this to say about The Fall of The Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior.



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 progress 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 complacency;

From complacency to apathy;

From apathy to dependence;

From dependence back to bondage.



Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most recent Presidential election;

Population of counties won by:

Gore - 127 million

Bush - 143 million

Square miles of land won by:

Gore - 580,000

Bush - 2,242,000

States won by:

Gore - 19

Bush - 29

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:

Gore - 13.2

Bush - 2.1

Professor Olson adds:

In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare.

Professor Olson believes the U.S. is now somewhere between the complacency and apathy phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy; with some 40 % of the nation's population already having reached the vernmental dependency phase.


Pass this along to help everyone analysis for themselves just how much
is at stake in EVERY Election Year, and that apathy is the greatest
danger to our freedom.



and of course all the righties are responding "oh thats interesting thanks for posting" now when i post REAL subjects i get not one response but this gets plenty :eyes:
and a lefty said "well it seems to be saying that bush voters own tons of land and that gores voter seems to be poor looking for handouts"

[shoelace414]

1. every house in a city is government owned tenements I guess

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

2. Send them this link:

www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp

Professor Olson did not write that "analysis" of the 2000 election.

[nickinSTL]

3. apartment dwellers

And I guess people like me, who live in apartments, are in government housing, living off welfare?

I'm working 2 jobs, and I voted Gore. Short of the $300 tax rebate :eyes: I'm getting no government handouts that I can think of.

[bemildred]

4. Half-wit drivel for gullible goobers. nt

[Bridget Burke]

5. "Government owned tenements"

What the hell is that garbage?

[zanana]

6. Is that little cutie your baby?

Give him a hug for me.

[southernleftylady]

7. Yes thats my son ! And I will :) thank you! n/t

[Mr_Spock]

8. LOL - what a bunch of "selective" facts drivel - even an idiot repuke

could see through that. They hammer at Dems for doing such stupid shit and then do it themselves! HUH - what a bunch of poppycock (or is it poppycheney?)

[pmbryant]

9. Here's the only statistic that should matter...

Countries where Gore received more votes than Bush:

1...

The U.S.A.

--Peter

[napi21]

10. Interesting chain of events. I think they're true.

A population does get apathetic when things are going fairly well and there's bee enough time between major problems. I certainly have met a lot of people who believe the government is so corrupt they can't do anything about it, so why bother to vote.

I'm hoping, this year, there are enough people who felt that way in 2000 change their mind and recognize that the current admin. is trying to take our Country back to the 20's & 30's when the eliete did run everything and the workers rebeled. They formed unions, laws were enacted to break up monolopies and reign in the greed of corp. leaders. It has to happen again!

It won't happen until the majority of people are affected enough to rebel. I HOPE IT'S THIS YEAR!

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Read the Snopes link...

and now remember that I've seen this "Tyler" quoted before, although probably in some different form.

I personally suspect the Tyler reference was invented by someone who read Plato's Republic, where Plato made the same case that democracy cannot be sustained because politicians ultimately end up giving away the store to buy votes.

The rest of it is the usual selective quoting of irrelevant, or erroneous, numbers to make a point.

[Blue Wally]

12. It was ......

a DNC type back in the thirties who said "tax-tax, spend-spend, elect-elect". We did well with it till the wheels came off the wagon in the seventies and led to the Reagan revolution. We need to formulate a coherent plan for government and take it to the people. "Hate Bush" might work this time around, but it is not a long-term strategy.