The Mind and Brilliance of Alexis de Tocqueville, Part One
Most of you have heard of Alexis de Tocqueville, the Frenchman who visited America in the 1830s and wrote a two-volume classic, Democracy in America, about his findings. De Tocqueville was an incredibly brilliant man, and I’d like to share with readers a little of his genius. Like our Founding Fathers, he had a solid grasp of history, human nature, and great, eternal spiritual truths. Here are a few of his thoughts.
1. “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.”
I’ve made this point so many times in my writings that my readers might be getting tired of it. I’ve quoted Benjamin Franklin to the same effect: “When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.” And historian Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler: “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.” Here I simply wish to demonstrate that Alexis de Tocqueville understood the same common-sense truth. I find it interesting that he said that Congress would bribe the people with their own money. The man was honest. That is exactly what the corrupt Congress is doing today, and the government is $39 trillion in debt because of it. We learn nothing from great minds, but are enamored by idiots.
2. I think this second quote from de Tocqueville is funny: “I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior........
