The first is from Thomas Jefferson posted on the Criplets' site
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. Thomas Jefferson
The next one is from my economic go to site.
"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm." James Madison
Madison wrote that in Federalist #10. Did he ever hit the nail on the head. Where are our enlightened statesmen? Instead of enlightened statesmen we get grandstanding demagogues like Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Chuck "the schmuck" Schumer, Jug Hussein Ears, Corinne "gradulate the gator" Brown, John Maverick McRINO, Arlen Sphinctor, Joe Biden, John Murtha, Maxine Waters, Henry Waxman, Dick "Turban" Durban, and the list goes on and on.
Here is an excerpt from Steve's post.
James Madison must be spinning in his grave. Two hundred and twenty-two years ago, he was under the apparently-mistaken impression that establishing a republic would prevent the fatal flaw of democracy: inevitable suicide, via mob rule. That's what he was talking about in Federalist #10 — which I went back and reread after witnessing the embarrassing spectacle on Capitol Hill in the past week.
Read this carefully. In spite of what you have been taught in school We! Are! Not! A! Democracy!!!!!! Our Founders did not want a democracy which is why they established a republic. That's why we have the electoral college. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what's for dinner. It was only during the reign of FDR that the political class started referring to this country as a democracy.
I fear for my country because we are turning into a democracy. One of the reasons we have a public school system is to have an educated electorate. How's that working out? When we have people who can vote for semi-literate bonerheads like Corinne Brown we are in trouble. When we have a school system that can give degrees to semi-literate bonerheads like Corrine Brown we are in trouble. Our public school system has gone from educating our children to indoctrinating our children. How else to explain our populace sending so many grandstanding clowns to Congress?
The Founders also envisioned a free press to be a watchdog on gummint. How's that working out? How do you think Jefferson and Madison would feel to see that our "free press" has become the propaganda arm of the Dimocrat Party.
Speaking of Jefferson, how do you think he'd feel about his party becoming the party of a large and ever expanding gummint? Jefferson believed in limited gummint.
I do know that republics and democracies are eventually doomed to fail as soon as the people realize that they can vote themselves money from the treasury which eventually leads to crippling taxes and the demise of the economy which eventually leads to a dictatorship.
I just hoped I wouldn't live to see the death throes of my country. Unfortunately, I'm seeing it happen right before my eyes.
Posted by denny at March 23, 2009 11:05 AMA government that can give you everything you want is powerful enough to take everything you have. - Thomas Jefferson
People who do not pay taxes - should not have the vote.
People who are on the government teet - should not have the vote.
It is a propagandist lie that one vote for every man.
The people noted above will ALWAYS vote themselves a raise at the expense of the people who pay taxes.
Posted by: Willie on March 23, 2009 02:23 PM"Effective resistance to usurpers is possible only provided the citizens understand their rights and are disposed to defend them"
Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers #28
Ready and willing!
Posted by: kerrcarto on March 23, 2009 02:55 PMHence, public liberally run propaganda schools.
It is really ironic that the founding fathers were home schooled, or educated through private education. And they were brillant.
Today's public school education is a pathetic embarrassment.
I personally did poorly in school (New York) because as a conservative, even as a child, I was constantly punished and made wrong by the lefty education.
Wouldn't succumb or be molded and was severely disciplined and labeled.
The kids today really have it rough because the labels are even more rampant and come with drug related spirit suppressors.
Posted by: Willie on March 23, 2009 06:06 PMThat's why government funded welfare schools need to be abolished. Think about all the people who would never have kids because there was no free daycare to send them to. Parents would actually have to take responsibility for their offspring. Free Press? What free press? Pussy Press is more like it. And I'm right there with you Kerrcarto, but trust me, it won't be that easy. Why do you think they want to take our guns away?
Posted by: phthalo on March 23, 2009 08:00 PMWe are in the death throes, Denny, and revolution WOULD be the only solution, except between our prized NEA and the LSM, we've a nation of dunderheads whose sole ambition is to play on the XBox when they're not on Facebook or Twitter or catching the Communist National News. The sheep are being led to the slaughter....
Posted by: Chappy on March 23, 2009 08:42 PM"....right before my eyes."
I'll bet I've said that five-hundred times during the last two months.
Next up: cap and trade and immigration "reform."
Yep, right before our eyes.
Posted by: Jim - PRS on March 24, 2009 03:09 AMWhat the Founding Fathers said in the U.S. Constitution is "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors . . ." The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly characterized the authority of the state legislatures over the manner of awarding their electoral votes as "plenary" and "exclusive."
Neither of the two most important features of the current system of electing the President (namely, that the voters may vote and the winner-take-all rule) are in the U.S. Constitution. Neither was the choice of the Founders when they went back to their states to organize the nation's first presidential election.
A "republican" form of government means that the voters do not make laws themselves but, instead, delegate the job to periodically elected officials (Congressmen, Senators, and the President). The United States has a "republican" form of government regardless of whether popular votes for presidential electors are tallied at the state-level (as is currently the case in 48 states) or at district-level (as is currently the case in Maine and Nebraska) or at 50-state-level (as under the National Popular Vote bill).
If a "republican" form of government means that the presidential electors exercise independent judgment (like the College of Cardinals that elects the Pope), we have had a "democratic" method of electing presidential electors since 1796 (the first contested presidential election). Ever since 1796, presidential candidates have been nominated by a central authority (originally congressional caucuses, and now party conventions) and electors are reliable rubberstamps for the voters of the district or state that elected them.
End the Fed: Repeal Amendment XVI
Posted by: Willie on March 24, 2009 03:43 PM