"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only
exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the
public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the
candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the
result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed
by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred
years. These nations have progressed 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
selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy,
from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage. "

Alexander Tyler - Circa 1780 - discussing the fall of the Athenian
Democracy.



I'd say we're about at the complacent stage.....



jf

"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote in message
k.net...

"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
online.com...

Unfortunately, our Constitution is not self-limiting. That is, if we
pass
an amendment which makes the US a theocracy, a theocracy it will be.

The only real protection we have is that the threshold for passing an
amendment is set relatively high.


Doesn't matter. We can just ignore the Constitution or declare it to mean
something other than what it clearly states.