Wednesday, September 28, 2016

"The People's Liberty" - Part The Fourth

A series on The Constitution of the State of New Hampshire, its origins and its restraints upon government. Presented by NH State Representative Dan Itse, at Murphy's Taproom, Manchester, NH, 9/25/2016.

States Have Powers: The Powers of the People: Dan Itse

Quotes referenced in this installment:

"Behold, the fool saith, "Put not all thine eggs in the one basket' -- which is but a manner of saying, 'Scatter your money and your attention'; but the wise man saith, 'Put all your eggs in the one basket and -- WATCH THAT BASKET!'"
-Pudd'nhead Wilson-
Mark Twain

"A democracy cannot survive as a permanent form of government. It can last only until its citizens discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority (who vote) will vote for the candidates promising the greatest benefits from the public purse, with the result that a democracy will always collapse from loose fiscal policies, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest democratic nations has been 200 years. Each has been through the following sequence:
1. From bondage to spiritual faith.
2. From faith to great courage.
3. From courage to liberty.
4. From liberty to abundance.
5. From abundance to complacency.
6. From complacency to selfishness.
7. From selfishness to apathy.
8. From apathy to dependency.
9. And from dependency back again into bondage."
-Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay-
author and politician, in a letter to a friend in 1857
Or was it...
-Alexander Tytler-
Scottish born British attorney, half a century earlier
Or...
Or...
Or....