Maybe we shouldn't be so fast to poo-poo history

Today by chance I ran across something I read years ago that has stuck in my mind ever since.   It's a quote attributed to 18th Century Scottish historian Alexander Tyler.   His position was that a democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.

He went on to say democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover 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.  After that, democracy will eventually collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

That was in 1787!

Check this....he suggested there were eight steps to democracy:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith

2. From spiritual faith to great courage

3. From courage to liberty (revolution)

4. From liberty to abundance

5. From abundance to complacency

6. From complacency to apathy

7. From apathy to dependence

8. From dependence to bondage

YIKES!

It seems to me one of our mistakes, assuming you believe Mr. Tyler's hypothesis, was to vote "generous gifts" to only a portion of our population vs to everyone.  If we all benefit from something, such as a publicly funded education or an interstate highway system (do I dare even mention some sort of universally-available health care?), democracy can perhaps cope.  But when we give "gifts" to only a few, such as welfare to the poor at one extreme or tax breaks to the wealthy at the other, those in the middle, who don't qualify for either, become resentful.  That's when class warfare arises.  That's when the wheels come off.

 Just something to think about.

S

GOP debate recap

This is actually what I tuned in to see, but it was a bit more restrained.  Pity.  ;)

For those of you who are vaguely interested in politics, but not enough so to actually watch 2 hours of their regularly televised sit-com, I offer this debate recap:  Mark O. Rubio seemed cool and above the fray, Dr. Ben Carson, always the polite gentleman, showed....umm....good posture, The Donald seemed to have ratcheted down his mouth a couple of notches, Chris Christie was once again the 8-to-5 working guy's guy, Mike Huckleberry showed he was still the best orator, Ted Cruz had a memorable line, John Kasich seemed to be desperately struggling to keep his head above water, Carly Fiorina was chomping at the bit for a cat fight with Hillary C,  and Jeb Bush and Rand Paul rode off into the sunset (they just don't know it yet).

And the CNBC moderators were assholes.  What the hell was wrong with those folks?  Every question they asked was little more than "have you stopped beating your wife?"

For the life of me I can't understand why Dr. Carson is now the front-runner. Is he smart?  Yes, he's brilliant.  Does he act like an adult when the opportunity is there for a sleazy attack?  Yes, he's a class guy.  But IMHO his demeanor is more that of a statistical actuary than a leader.

I expect my leaders to be able to inspire, to work a crowd up into a force for action.  Such as....

"We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall NEVER surrender."  Winston Churchill

or "Mr. Gorbachev, TEAR...DOWN...THIS...WALL!"  Ronald Reagan

or "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."  FDR

Dr. Carson has a soft-spoken demeanor that is [to me] reminiscent of Jimmah Carter, and we all know how THAT turned out!  (He was absolutely run over by the scum-bag Washington professional politicians.)

Several of the candidates (Mike Huckabee and Chris Christie) seemed almost like they were "Democrat Lite" when they spoke of entitlements.  "Workers have BOUGHT their 'entitlements', they were not just given to them."  Gov. Christie even slapped us with the truth:  The money we put into our Social Security Trust Fund is GONE.  Over the past 50 years our "leaders" have STOLEN it.   We're not EVER going to see it again.   Fact!  

And Christie wants to jail the crooked bankers who almost imploded the world back in '08.  YES!

There was almost unanimity over how unhealthy our income inequality is.  This from Republicans?  Whoa!

Poor Jeb.  If you're a Jeb Bush fan, I'm sorry, but it's over for him.  The Bush dynasty has obviously ended with Dubyah.  Give Jeb a nice dinner and a gold watch and retire him.  Now.

Even Ted Cruz got a well-deserved round of applause from the audience when he called out the moderators for being unfair beyond belief.

And Donald Trump.  *sigh*  I think he'll lumber along for a while longer as a legitimate contender, but voters seem to be getting a little lot more serious about the issues, and The Donald hasn't really told us much yet about how he's going to do what he's promised.  I'm not sure if he can.  

My chuckle moment was when Trump skewered PAC's as the scourge of politics.  Ha!   So true!  But as he was the only one there not accepting PAC money, he was a lonely voice of one.  Touche Donald!

I think Mark O. will get a bounce from this debate.  Something about him, though, troubles me.  I'm just not sure exactly what.  I'm sure if there's anything there it will surface in time.

There you have it....my opinion, which ranks right up there with a big bowl of cold oatmeal.  ;)

S

We sure could use Pat Paulsen right now (look it up)

Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you a man with no heart.  Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you a man with no brains. ~~Winston Churchill

Whoa!  Last night Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, the #2 guy in the House of Representatives, was defeated in his Virginia district primary race.  This is both good news and bad news.

Cantor was one of the Republican "Young Guns" along with Paul Ryan and Kevin McCarthy, a small group of virtually inflexible super conservatives who, IMO, were preventing our government from "governing".  Think "government shutdown".  He'll be gone after the first of the new year.  That's the good news.

The bad news is that the guy who defeated him is even MORE inflexible, as in absolutely rigid.  He's a Tea Party fave and one of those "my way or the highway" kinda people.  If enough people like him are elected our political polarization, our gridlock, will get even worse.  Sales of pitchforks and torches will surge.

While the Tea Party has been swatted down in many primary races so far this year, this was a BIG win for them.  As a student of politics (among other things) this intrigues me.  It's going to make for a fascinating fall election.

I'm tickled by all the fuss over whether Hillary Clinton will run for President in 2016.  My first prediction: She might run, but she won't even get her party's nomination.

She'll be in the headlines all right, and might win some early primaries, but her party will eventually realize she's a lightning rod.  

Her fans love her, but her foes are reviled by her.  That's not a recipe for winning an election.  She comes with a lot of baggage....I'm guessing even more than most politicians.  There's gonna be lots of mud (shit?) slinging.

Get one of her bumper stickers and buttons as soon as you can 'cause they will some day be political novelties.

I'll add Hillary's to my collection.  :)

S

Me from A to Z

Shades of JournalSpace!  These sorts of personal expose's were common back "in the day", but I haven't seen one since JS permanently crashed.   This exercise was at the suggestion of my friend Suldog, and at his request I'll play along.  Here's me, from A to Z:

Age:  62 chronologically, much less emotionally.  K sometimes says I'm a "stick in the mud", and I'm sure I am at times, but most of the time I'm having too much fun to act my age.  That may be because I pretty much toed the line as a kid and now I'm making up for lost time.

Bed Size:  Queen.  To me a King is just too big.  They're so big you can stretch out and never even know you're in bed with anyone else.  I like to think snuggling in a Queen bed is the perfect way to promote world peace.  *I can't imagine why that line hasn't worked better?*

Chore I Hate:  Yard work, hands down.  I hate mowing, edging, weed-eating, trimming shrubs, raking leaves, fertilizing, spraying for various bugs and lawn diseases....all of it.  All so it can look good for maybe 3 days until it starts looking shaggy again?  Talk about an exercise in futility!

Dogs?  I love dogs, pretty much all dogs.  But I only want a small to medium sized dog for myself.  Big dogs have too much going in one end and coming out the other.  My love of dogs is odd since my parents didn't have dogs and therefore I was never around one as a kid.  Right now we have a Yorkshire Terrier (Luke), and before him we had a Miniature Schnauzer (Emma), a West Highland White Terrier (Tara), and many years ago (pre K) I had an American Eskimo (Tahsha).  Dogs bring me much happiness.  :)

Essential start to my day:  A cold beverage.  Right now I'm partial to Trader Joe's Latte's and Mocha Cappuccino's.

Favorite color:  I'm easy.  I like green, blue, red....there's no color in particular I plan my wardrobe or room furnishings around.  If it looks good in context, I like it.

Gold or Silver?  Silver.  It's less flashy than gold.  I'm not a flashy person.

House or Apartment?  For 35+ years I owned my own home(s), but for the last 4 years I've had an apartment and I LOVE IT!  In fairness, at certain times in my life, such as when I had small children and they needed a safe place to play, a house was perfect.  But I'm long past that now.   A house again someday?  Never say never. *wink*

Instruments played:  AM radio, FM radio, Quadraphonic stereo, 8-track, cassettes, CD's and iPods.  I'm accomplished in them all.  ;)

Job title:  Until last fall, President of Park Place Custom Homes.  That sounds impressive until you read my job description:  "Responsible for every shitty detail if no one else can be found to dump it on."  Now I'm semi-retarded.

Kids:  Three daughters; Kristan, Andrea, and Erica.  Today all are grown, well educated, and gainfully employed.  *happy dance*  They've also blessed me with four grandkids (Austin, Colby, Parker, and Blakely), with one more (Reese) on the way.

Live:  If that's a long "i", yes I am.  Otherwise, in Frisco, TX, a far-northern Dallas suburb.

Married:  Happily, to the lovely and talented "K".  Six years so far and counting.  :)

Never Again....will I ever sign my name to a mega-million dollar bank note.  Been there, done that, (successfully) escaped by the skin of my teeth.  I don't trust #$%& bankers.  "He who has the gold makes the rules", and the rules are 100% tilted in their favor.  Always!

Other Fun Facts:  I love history (college minor), and in particular aviation history.   For a while I was a docent at a Smithsonian-affiliated aviation museum.  I was also very active for nearly two decades with the Confederate Air Force, today known as the Commemorative Air Force.  I traveled the country on their behalf and had a great time, but what I did was extremely dangerous and about 8 years ago I figured I'd pushed my luck long enough and hung up my chocks.  

Pet Peeves:  People who throw cigarette butts on the pavement, people who make messes and leave it for someone else to clean up, f__ked-up renditions of the Star Spangled Banner, people who pull in front of me on the road and then just poke along, cops who get all bent out of shape when I do 54 in a 40....

Quote:  "Character means doing the right thing, even when no one is watching."  (author unknown)  Also: "Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense." (Winston Churchill)

Righty or Lefty?  Righty, although I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous!

Siblings:  One, Todd.  Good guy, business partner, extremely competent, totally trustworthy.  He's 11 years younger than me (can you say "Oops"), so we were never close as kids.  Especially after the time I put him in the clothes dryer and gave him a couple of spins.  (Oh stop it!  You know you'd have loved to do the same thing to your kid bro/sis.  You just didn't think of it.)

Time you wake up:  Wake up around 5:30 (thanks to Luke the Wonder Dog), feet hit the floor about 6.

University attended:  Texas Tech University, class of '72.  Nine of the happiest years of my life!  (Kidding....I made it in 4.)

Veggies I dislike:  Pretty much all of them, especially those that have a color...yellow, green, red, orange...yuck! The blue ones aren't too bad.  And I do like jalapenos.  (When I was a kid to get my mother to quit bugging me I convinced her a jalapeno was a green vegetable.)  

What makes you run late?  Very few things.  I'm extremely punctual.

X-rays?  Sure.  For dental work, of course.  And on my head to see if I was "normal"....oh, and to check out my sinuses, and on my back, and on the typical assorted adolescent broken bones. 

Yum foods?  Steak!  Mexican!  Italian!  Banana pudding!  Pecan pie!  Ice cream!  (I'll stop there as this post is already waaaay too long.)

Zoo animal (favorite):   I'm not really into zoo's all that much, but I'd have to say it would probably be one of the birds of prey.  I find them fascinating.

OK, that's me.  Now as Jim (Suldog) challenged me, I'm challenging you to do one of these on yourself.  I think it's a pretty cool way to learn more about your blogging friends.  

Hope you enjoyed.  :)

S