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Interesting, this quote comes to mind: “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money

by byoogle 12y ago

Interesting, this quote comes to mind: “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

nickthemagicman 12y ago
The term, bribery, is extremely subjective in this context. It's the same ephemerality as saying someone is a hater of "Freedom". It makes an easy soundbite but what does that even mean?
- michael2l 12y ago
  I think most people use the concept of being for or against "Freedom" to refer to the opposite sides of the bottom-up versus top-down modes of economic development and governance. Certainly, it's an over-generalization, and the word freedom is used specifically to evoke an emotional response, but I don't think it's devoid of meaning. An unfortunate side-effect of having a democracy with 300 million plus people in it, is that to a certain extent these sort of over-generalizations are a necessary part of coalition building.
  - nickthemagicman 12y ago
    Overgeneralizations? You mean "propoganda"? Coalition? You mean "fear fueled mob"? Not sure what you mean by a bottom up government but the buzzwords are flowing I'm assuming it involves something along the lines of privatizating everything.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
bmmayer1 12y ago
I love that quote but it should be mentioned that it is actually misattributed to de Tocqueville. Doesn't make it any less true though.
acdha 12y ago
That quote appears to be the creation of an editorial writer in the 1950s: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville#Misattributed http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville#Misattrib...
sigzero 12y ago
I think that is actually part of the "Cycle of Democracy" by Dr. Alexander Tytler.
- gaius 12y ago
  Any quote I don't know the origin of, I've taken to attributing to Taylor Swift. It works pretty well.
  - nickthemagicman 12y ago
    "Never trust what you read on the internet" -Abraham Lincoln

by byoogle 12y ago

Interesting, this quote comes to mind: “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” – Alexis de Tocqueville

nickthemagicman 12y ago

The term, bribery, is extremely subjective in this context. It's the same ephemerality as saying someone is a hater of "Freedom". It makes an easy soundbite but what does that even mean?

michael2l 12y ago
I think most people use the concept of being for or against "Freedom" to refer to the opposite sides of the bottom-up versus top-down modes of economic development and governance. Certainly, it's an over-generalization, and the word freedom is used specifically to evoke an emotional response, but I don't think it's devoid of meaning. An unfortunate side-effect of having a democracy with 300 million plus people in it, is that to a certain extent these sort of over-generalizations are a necessary part of coalition building.
- nickthemagicman 12y ago
  Overgeneralizations? You mean "propoganda"? Coalition? You mean "fear fueled mob"? Not sure what you mean by a bottom up government but the buzzwords are flowing I'm assuming it involves something along the lines of privatizating everything.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

bmmayer1 12y ago

I love that quote but it should be mentioned that it is actually misattributed to de Tocqueville. Doesn't make it any less true though.

acdha 12y ago

That quote appears to be the creation of an editorial writer in the 1950s: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville#Misattributed http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexis_de_Tocqueville#Misattrib...

sigzero 12y ago

I think that is actually part of the "Cycle of Democracy" by Dr. Alexander Tytler.

gaius 12y ago
Any quote I don't know the origin of, I've taken to attributing to Taylor Swift. It works pretty well.
- nickthemagicman 12y ago
  "Never trust what you read on the internet" -Abraham Lincoln