Quotes on Democracy

Recently I had a conversation with a young woman who just positively glowed about the benefits of Democracy. I seem to get in these kinds of conversations frequently. Of course people who say they love Democracy have no earthly idea what they are saying. I believe they think they are saying that they Love America. The Problem is, is that America was not formed as a Democracy.

So, in order to understand Democracy we must have an understanding of what it means. Democracy is merely mobocracy. It is the idea that a 50% plus 1 vote equals legal rule. As such, we could cite the whimsical, but true saw, that Democracy is 3 wolves and 2 Lambs voting on what is for dinner.

The fact that our founders hated the idea of Democracy is found in the words of James Madison (you know … he who is known as the Father of our non-democracy Constitution). Madison said

“[D]emocracies have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have, in general, been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”

Our Second President, John Adams said of Democracy,

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

What follows is a flurry of quotes on Democracy. Of course my young female friend had no idea of what Democracy really means or else she would have never been so vehement about supporting the silliness and danger that is Democracy.

“A perfect democracy, a ‘warm body’ democracy in which every adult may vote and all votes count equally, has no internal feedback for self-correction. It depends solely on the wisdom and self-restraint of citizens…which is opposed by the folly and lack of self-restraint of other citizens. What is supposed to happen in a democracy is that each sovereign citizen will always vote in the public interest for the safety and welfare of all. But what does happen is that he votes his own self-interest as he sees it…which for the majority translates as ‘Bread and Circuses.’ ‘Bread and Circuses’ is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.” ~

Robert A. Heinlein

“Democratism and its allied herd movements, while remaining loyal to the principle of equality and identity, will never hesitate to sacrifice liberty.” ~ Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

“Democracy has nothing to do with freedom. Democracy is a soft variant of communism, and rarely in the history of ideas has it been taken for anything else.” ~ Hans-Herman Hoppe

“Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.” ~ Aristotle

“Democracy means the opportunity to be everyone’s slave.” ~ Karl Kraus

“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.” ~ H.L. Mencken

American was not founded as a Democracy. It was founded as a Constitutional Republic. Of course that has been largely lost via government education combined with brain dead politicians who are forever giving us claptrap about America as that “great shining Democracy that the whole world aspires to be.

In point of fact the degeneration of our nation can be largely traced to the tendency of our Nation to embrace more and more mechanisms that smack of Democracy. The elimination of the US Senators being voted upon by State Legislators in 1913. The tendency towards referendum ballot initiatives. (Initiatives that are consistently ignored if the population doesn’t vote the way the State desire the outcome to end.) The push in some quarters to get rid of the Electoral College. All of these movements towards Democracy chip away at the Liberty upon which this diverse nation was founded.

Democracy … the killer of nations and the midwife of tyranny.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane