Dakota Beacon

American campaign season launched with an opening salvo of primary elections this spring. This becomes “old hat” for many of us and is as predictable as the seasons.

Governments existed as long as mankind walked the earth, most of them authoritarian in one form or another. Human nature never changes and when two or three are gathered together, someone always seeks to be in charge, to control others, if you will. Our current American system was predicated on the belief that the foibles of human nature could be overcome. That system offers no guarantees if and when the common bond of shared values evaporates.

Human nature may not be so easily corralled after all. Consider the following observations.

Plato, author of “The Republic” offers a few choice words from days gone by.

           “If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.”

           “In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state.”

Aristotle, Plato’s student, offered a few succinct words of his own about politics and politicians.

           “It is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political animal.”

           “Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.” (Note the distinction between “republic” and “democracy.” See more below.)

           “Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.”

           “In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.”

Leap forward several hundred years to America’s Founding Father Samuel Adams.

           “How strangely will the tools of a tyrant pervert the plain meaning of words.”

           “Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty nor happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt.”

           “Liberty will not long survive the total extinction of morals.”

           “It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail.”

Another Founding Father shared similar sentiments about virtue. Here is Ben Franklin.

           “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”

Then there is Ambrose Bierce (my favorite), author of “The Devil’s Dictionary,” (1911) a collection of witticisms and caustic aphorisms.

           “Democracy is four wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.”

           “War is God's way of teaching Americans geography.”

           “Democracy is defended in 3 stages. Ballot Box, Jury Box, Cartridge Box.”

Mark Twain adds his own sarcastic edification.

           “Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason.”

           “I saw a startling sight today, a politician with his hands in his own pockets.”

           “Politicians, old buildings, and prostitutes become respectable with age.”

H. L. Mencken, editor and newspaperman, observed human nature close up in democracy. What he observed he reported with wry cynicism.

           “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” (This bit of truth proves quite useful in modern fundraising.)

           “Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.”

           “If experience teaches us anything at all, it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.”

           “Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.”

           “Socialist: A man suffering from an overwhelming conviction to believe what is not true.”

           “The state remains, as it was in the beginning, the common enemy of all well-disposed, industrious, and decent men.”

Current leftist idioms peppering civic dialog are found in “Speechless: Controlling Words, Controlling Minds” by Michael Knowles. (Think of Samuel Adams’ quote above about words.)

           “Fascism: anything you don’t like.”

           “Reproductive justice: infanticide.”

           “Hard work: a tool of white supremacy.”

           “Riot: a mostly peaceful protest.”

           “Sexism: the bigoted belief that men and women are different.”

           “Systemic racism: the refusal to grant special treatment to people on the basis of race.”

           “White supremacy: anything leftist don’t like.”

           “Woman: a person who may or may not be a man.”

And so it goes. Human nature remains unchanged. “There is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).