blue and red, understood

This is from back in the 2000 election cycle but worth another look, as it helps clear up some of the facts.

At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new
constitution,
in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The
University of Edinborough) had this to say about "The Fall of The
Athenian
Republic" some 2,000 years prior.
"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."
"The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the
beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years,
these
nations always 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 complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage."
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul,
Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most recent
Presidential election:
Population of counties won by:
Gore=127 million
Bush=143 million
Square miles of land won by:
Gore=580,000
Bush=2,2427,000
States won by:
Gore=19
Bush=29
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore=13.2
Bush=2.1
Professor Olson adds:
"In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land
owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory
mostly
encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and
living off government welfare..."
Olson believes the U.S. is now somewhere between the "complacency and
apathy" phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy; with some 40
percent of the nation's population already having reached the
"governmental dependency" phase.