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[bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>]

This little commentary has been attributed to more than one person, over the 
years..Academics say that Alexander Tyler never did, but it is aattributed to 
him, here....................................

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"About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution 
in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of 
Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 
years earlier:

'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 
they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.'

'From that moment on, the majority always vote 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.'