http://www.bryansuddith.com/2009/10/21/why-dont-you/ The e-home for Bryan Suddith Mon, 19 Jul 2010 19:12:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://www.bryansuddith.com/2009/10/21/why-dont-you/comment-page-1/#comment-1038 Bryan Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:52:14 +0000 http://www.bryansuddith.com/?p=306#comment-1038 Moving from a republic towards more of a pure democracy is not a good thing. Read some history on the Athenians for evidence of that. Democracy is nothing short of mob rule. A republic adds a layer of insulation from the fickleness and populist emotions of the average citizen. Our founding fathers realized that the majority of people will never be informed enough to make truly thoughtful choices when voting. Consequently, mass voting, that by its very nature tends towards uniformed or misinformed decision making, will result in a populist tidal wave of gifts to the populace in the form of government provided programs that were paid for by taking funds from the producers of society. People will usually vote what they perceive is best for them. When they don't understand the long term consequences of their choices but rather focus on the short term gains (gifts) we end up in the situation that we have today. Consequently, unrestricted one man/ one vote has always been and still is a recipe for disaster. I in no way advocate the stripping of the ability of people to vote. However, encouraging this parade of the politically blind and uninformed to get to the polls is irresponsible. Rather than blanketed encouragement of the people to go and vote, we should be encouraging them to get informed. It is far more important and integral to safe guarding the more stable form of government, a republic. ". . . whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right." Thomas Jefferson Unfortunately, we are currently lacking in this important qualification for self governance and people do not know when the situation has gone so wrong as to demand their attention. As long as American Idol is on their cable and they have their Big Macs they are content. It will only be after they have allowed things to deteriorate to such a degree that they will realize there is a problem. At that point it will be too late. Moving from a republic towards more of a pure democracy is not a good thing. Read some history on the Athenians for evidence of that. Democracy is nothing short of mob rule. A republic adds a layer of insulation from the fickleness and populist emotions of the average citizen. Our founding fathers realized that the majority of people will never be informed enough to make truly thoughtful choices when voting. Consequently, mass voting, that by its very nature tends towards uniformed or misinformed decision making, will result in a populist tidal wave of gifts to the populace in the form of government provided programs that were paid for by taking funds from the producers of society. People will usually vote what they perceive is best for them. When they don’t understand the long term consequences of their choices but rather focus on the short term gains (gifts) we end up in the situation that we have today. Consequently, unrestricted one man/ one vote has always been and still is a recipe for disaster. I in no way advocate the stripping of the ability of people to vote. However, encouraging this parade of the politically blind and uninformed to get to the polls is irresponsible. Rather than blanketed encouragement of the people to go and vote, we should be encouraging them to get informed. It is far more important and integral to safe guarding the more stable form of government, a republic. “. . . whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right.” Thomas Jefferson
Unfortunately, we are currently lacking in this important qualification for self governance and people do not know when the situation has gone so wrong as to demand their attention. As long as American Idol is on their cable and they have their Big Macs they are content. It will only be after they have allowed things to deteriorate to such a degree that they will realize there is a problem. At that point it will be too late.

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