georgejc Loc: discovery bay, california

The Mob Is Coming For You

The constitution of the Roman Republic was designed as a corrective to democracy. Specifically, it was hoping to protect against the excesses of Athenian-style direct democracy. About twice a month in Athens, citizens v**ed into law almost anything they wished. About six to seven thousand citizens would squeeze into a hillside amphitheater known as the Pnyx and were swayed by demagogues (“people leaders”) into v****g for or against wh**ever the cause de jour was. Our term “democracy” comes from the Greek dêmos-kratos, which means “people-power.”

In furor at a r*******n, for example, Athenians once v**ed to k**l all of the adult male subjects of the island of Lesbos—only to repent the next day and v**e again to execute just some, hoping that their second messenger ship rowed fast enough across the Aegean to catch the first bearing the original death sentence. In a fit of pique, the popular court v**ed to execute the philosopher Socrates, fine the statesman Pericles, and ostracize the general Aristides. Being successful, popular, rich, or controversial always proved to be a career liability in a democracy like the one that ruled Athens.

The Romans knew enough about mercurial ancient Athens to appreciate that they did not want a radical democracy. Instead, they sought to take away absolute power from the people and redistribute it within a “mixed” government. In Rome, power was divided constitutionally between executives (two consuls), legislators (the Senate and assemblies), and judges (Roman magistrates).

The half-millennia success of the stable Roman republican system inspired later French and British Enlightenment thinkers. Their abstract tripartite system of constitutional government stirred the Founding Fathers to concrete action. Americans originally were terrified of what 51 percent of the people in an unchecked democracy might do on any given day—and knew that ancient democracies had always become more not less radical and thus more unstable. For all the squabbles between Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, and Madison, they agreed that a republic, not a direct democracy, was a far safer and stable choice of governance.

The result was a potpourri of ways to curb the predictable excesses and fits of the people. An E*******l College reserved commensurate power to rural states rather than passing off the p**********l v**e into the hands of the huge urban majorities. States could decide their own rules of v**er participation—with the original understanding that owning a modicum of property might make a citizen more rooted and engaged. Senators were appointed by state legislatures to balance the popular e******n of House members.

Ancient Athens was a wild place—as frenetic, brilliant, and dangerous as it proved ultimately unsustainable. Yet we are becoming more like the Athenian mob than the Roman Senate. American law has become negotiable and subject to revolutionary justice, while technology has developed the power to inflame 300 million individuals in a nanosecond. Without strict adherence to republican government and the protections of the Constitution, the mob will rule—and any American will become subject to its sudden wrath.
....Victor David Hanson
Semper Fidelis

fidelis

Read them the r**t act. As enacted in British parliament, any unruly group when ordered to disperse was read the r**t act by the officer in charge of the troops assigned to restore order. The act required immediate dispersal, and the authority to use any means including any means up to lethal force break up the gathering. Maybe take a lesson from UK.

georgejc Loc: discovery bay, california

One thing I miss about the old USSR was that they had a perfect method of dealing with crowds.

It was a tank mounted upon which was a water gun with the force and volume of a couple of fire hoses.

The crowds dispersed readily.

jeff smith

we do , have the right to protest. although there is a way to protest and then there is unruly protest. which is what the dumocrates are doing day after day. hose them down with water cannons or arrest them for disorderly conduct. or both!

Weasel Loc: In the Great State Of Indiana!!

Weasel Loc: In the Great State Of Indiana!!

!

georgejc Loc: discovery bay, california

Sorry Jeff, we do not have the right to protest. The First Amendment provides for freedom of assembly and provides the cause for it being a petition to Congress. That is an expressed way for exercising a public statement. Our exercise of our v****g privilege is the implied way for exercising a public statement because it is necessary for the Constitutional government to perpetuate itself. The Founding Fathers feared mob rule and protesting was not recognized either by the Fathers or by the Constitution as a legitimate manner of exercising a public statement. You make a distinction between violent protest and non-violent protest, but the Founders never made that distinction. The problem is that the non-violent mob can suddenly turn into the violent mob, which is what we are experiencing today. We tolerated protest movements during the Civil Rights period because it was the moral thing to do. We tolerated it during the Vienam War because it was, for many, the moral thing to do. Now, we have a mob gather everytime a new cause comes up. And, they are always leading to violence eventually. Consequently, the Founding Fathers feared the mob and with good cause. One of the reasons that the E*******l College was created was so that an Executive and Vice President could be elected based on the support and feed back from every state, every culture and every community in the Nation. Rather this, than a few heavily populated states making the decision and ignoring input from all other states. That then is the mob which could create a new government overnight by sheer force. And, many a Republic has been o*******wn exactly that way. It is often called a military or political c**p. Semper Fidelis.

Mike Easterday

Being these so called protesters are causing damage , We used to have tanks with flame throwers . If we light up these thugs , we eliminate a few problems.

Homestead

In America we have the right to peaceably assemble.
We have the right to associations.

What we don't have is the right to r**t. We have laws against that.

That's where the confusion comes in.
The Democrats want to claim that every r**t they start is a protest.

georgejc Loc: discovery bay, california

Easterday:
I like the idea of tanks with flame throwers instead of fire hoses.
Semper Fidelis