THINK ABOUT IT !!! Can a democracy survive without virtue ???

Question

Do you think that history shows that non-virtuious people and democracy have existed together in the same society !!! If so when ???

Answer 1

Democracy cannot exist without virtue, as much as socialism cannot exist without virtue.

The United States, despite some very poor teaching in the public schools, is NOT a democracy. Democracy, much like socialism, depends on the virtue of the citizens and the politicians. Since you cannot have three people in a room and guarantee that they are all virtuous, it is impossible to think that 300,000 people in a country can all be virtuous.

That is why we have a Republic. It is a democratically elected Republic, which is to prevent the powerful from ruling over the weak, but once the election is over, we are ruled by those that govern for another period of time.

There are a couple of analogies that put the situation quite well.

Democracy is three wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.

Socialism is one wolf telling three lambs what he is going to have for lunch.

A Republic as set up in the US is supposed to be the wolves and the lambs voting on who gets to decide what is for lunch. Not a whole lot better, but much better than the first two options.