Of the Ox and the Lion

It is generally assumed that the erasing of all distinctions will usher in the reign of pure democracy.  But the inability of pure democracy to stand for something intelligible leaves it merely a verbal deception.  If it promises equality before the law, it does no more than empires and monarchies have done and cannot use this as a ground to assert superiority.  If it promises equality of condition, it promises injustice, because one law for the ox and the lion is tyranny.

Source: Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences 1948 

Equality

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Source: George Orwell, Animal Farm, 17 August 1945

Democratic Majoritarianism

American political culture, unfortunately, has come to worship at the altar of democratic majoritarianism.  This has made the concept of rights arbitrary and capricious, and individual and natural rights are no longer cherished or understood.

Source:  Ron Paul, Liberty Defined (pg 67) section on Democracy, 2011

Rights and Voting

People should not be able to vote to take away the rights of others.

Source:  Ron Paul, Liberty Defined (pg 63) section on Democracy, 2011

Safe for Democracy

After each war there is a little less democracy left to save. 

Brooks Atkinson
 - Quote from 'The Anti-War Quote Book,' edited Eric Groves, Sr., pub. Quirk Books, 2008)

Democracy is...

democracy is the illusion that my wife and I, combined, have twice the political influence of David Rockefeller.

Butler Shaffer (2009)

Taking the Bait

 As long as Republicans say they are pro-life, support endless wars in Muslim countries, and compare themselves to the evil Democrats instead of some worthwhile standard, the majority of conservative Christians take the bait, only to be disappointed yet again when the election is over.

 Laurence Vance (2010)

Broken

Democracy broke down, not when the Union ceased to be agreeable to all it's constituent states, but when it was upheld, like any other Empire, by force of arms.

London Times (September 13, 1862)

Voting

If you vote and you elect dishonest incompetent people and they get into office and screw everything up well you are responsible for everything they have done.  You caused the problem, you voted them in, you have no right to complain.

Comedian George Carlin

Republic v Democracy

The guiding principle of republics is that they exercise narrow powers delegated to them by the people, who themselves, as individuals, posses such powers.  They cannot spring as they do in democracies, ex nihilo, from the mob's collective whim.

James Ostrowski (Direct Citizen Action, 2010)

Wisdom of the ballotbox

'If of ten men nine are recognizable as fools, which is a common calculation,' says our Intermittent Friend, 'how, in the name of wonder, will you ever get a ballotbox to grind you out a wisdom from the votes of these ten men?  Never by any conceivable ballotbox, nor by all the machinery in Bromwicham or out of it, will you attain such a result.  Not by any method under Heaven, except by suppressing, and in some good way reducing to zero, nine of those votes, can wisdom ever issue from your ten.

Thomas Carlyle (Latter-Day Pamphlets,  Pg 303, 1855)

Vote for the End

When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.

Benjamin Franklin

Democratic Demise

Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide

John Adams

Oppressive Majority

The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society.

Thomas Jefferson to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816. ME 14:490

Questions

Yet, dumbfounded or not by the smoke and mirrors, why do we suffer so much at the hands of those ruler-governors, if we are many and they are few? Why do we become enchanted with the belief that our ruler-governors are just and benevolent, when we experience evidence otherwise every day, everywhere? Why do we allow so many abuses of liberty and property, if the power the rulers possess is only that which we bestow onto them? Why do we let them treat us like beasts?

 Helio Beltrão (XXIII Forum da Liberdade, in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on April 12, 2010)

Democracy is

Democracy is just mob rule dressed up in a coat and tie.

Doug Casey (4/2/2010)

Presidential Intelligence

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H. L. Mencken (Bayard vs. Lionheart, 1920)

Johnny Got His Gun

Joe: When it comes my turn, will you want me to go?
Father: For democracy, any man would give his only begotten son. 

Johnny Got His Gun (1971 Movie)