We have a problem. This could be “the big one”—bigger than coping with the Ahmadinejads, Kims, and Chavezes of the world and bigger than our current economic woes. Our republic, our society, may be heading for a crackup. We are bankrupt, both financially and politically.
The source of the problem is democracy. Decades of so-called “progressive” thought have led us to abandon the limited-government, constitutional republic established by our founding fathers. In the name of putting more power into the hands of "the people," the government has arrogated sweeping powers.
There is a famous passage (possibly cobbled together from several separate statements and authors) that explains democracy’s fatal flaw, the inherently self-destructive element that caused our founding fathers to distrust democracy (Google “James Madison on democracy” for more):
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that 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 from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.” ...
Read the rest here. When articles like this start showing up in small mainstream media outlets (in socialist New Jersey, no less), you know the anxiety level is rising fast. The author concludes thusly:
When a financial crackup occurs, those who have been taught to depend on government will demand continued government benefits. If government fails to provide them, those demands could turn violent. On the other hand, if government moves to confiscate a significant chunk of whatever wealth remains in the hands of an already-hurting middle class, then millions of peaceful, law-abiding, hard-working Americans may finally reach the breaking point and rebel, as our forebears did in the 1770s, against a government viewed as abusive and oppressive.
How bad could it get? If the social order breaks down, civil unrest could disrupt markets and shortages of essential goods could occur. The resulting chaos could trigger martial law. A strong leader—a Caesar—could institute some sort of command order. Millions would resent it, but it would be accepted, because the alternative—civil conflict, chronic disorder, and impending starvation—would be intolerable. In such a calamity, Caesar would be the lesser of two evils. The American Republic and Constitution would join earlier democracies in the ashbin of history.
God help us.
A caesar-like (but likely communist) dictator emerging from a societal collapse is certainly a possibility, although it's but one possibility. There are others. A civil war, for example, caused by the imposition of the very martial law that the author mentions. Martial law might entail wholesale confiscation (i.e., theft) of property, and the attempted confiscation of guns to disarm the people. Such a move would almost certainly ignite a shooting, bloody, and brutal civil war. On the plus side, such a war might even result in the restoration of our constitutional republic, albeit at great cost in lives (including those of the tyrants and their agents and enablers, they should note).
Perhaps a civil war could even be avoided, should the military interpose itself on the people's behalf against the would-be tyrants, refusing to obey the tyrants' commands, and forcibly removing them from office. Who knows?
The possibilities are myriad, and the path we will take uncertain, as is the timing. No path exists, however, that is pain free, and much hardship and suffering, economic and possibly otherwise, likely await us all.
By the way, how are those preps going?
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