A Republic, if you can keep it

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

Alexis de Tocqueville (Also credited to Alexander Fraser Tytler)

Note:  If you are done with politics and just can’t take anymore…skip to the end and look at the Mindset List.

In the LA Times last week, we find that California will not save teachers jobs, but may use the money from the $26 billion emergency bailout from Congress to offset budget deficits.  When will the madness end? LA Times

If we gave individuals a check for $3,000 each (their part of the stimulus), instead of taxing (or debt) them the amount and having the government give it to individuals/organizations or expanding government, we would be way ahead.  The blowback is startling and becoming more heated as election season heats up.  Central View by William Hamilton is an article worth reading.

Investors Business Daily had an interesting viewpoint from an American Citizen.  Please read An Open Letter To President Obama and let me know what you think.

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years.

Alexander Fraser Tytler

The title of today’s post comes from a response to a question directed to Benjamin Franklin.  A woman asked what kind of Government the founders had come up with (“"Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?).  Benjamin Franklin replied,  “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

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Some notable points from the Mindset List for the class of 2013.

1. The Green Giant has always been Shrek, not the big guy picking vegetables.
2. They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
3. Rap music has always been main stream.
4. Women have always outnumbered men in college.
5. We have always watched wars, coups, and police arrests unfold on television in real time.
6. Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.
7. Nobody has ever responded to “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
8. There has always been blue Jell-O.

Feel old, check out the rest:  http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php