By Dave Davis
For Variety

THERE are many interesting theories on democracy as a form of government: why it works or doesn’t work, and about its long-term viability. Carefully consider the following. You may notice similarities with the current state of Guam politics.
At about the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Scotland’s University of Edinburgh history professor Alexander Tyler wrote this 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 votes 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 chaos. (Does any of this sound familiar?)
The average age of the world’s greatest democracies, from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence: 1. From bondage to spiritual faith; 2. From spiritual faith to great courage; 3. From courage to liberty; 4. From liberty to abundance; 5. From abundance to complacency; 6. From complacency to apathy; 7. From apathy to dependence; 8. From dependence back into bondage.”
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency” and “apathy” phases of Professor Tyler’s cycle of democracy, with some 40 percent of the nation’s population already in the “governmental dependency” phase. He points out some interesting facts about the 2000 presidential election. Population of counties won by Gore: 127 million; Bush: 143 million. Square miles of land won by Gore: 580,000; Bush: 2,427,000. States won by Gore: 19; Bush: 29 Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by Gore: 13.2; Bush: 2.1.
He adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Gore’s territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare...”
We on Guam, with our entrenched cradle-to-grave-government-support voter mentality, are probably somewhat ahead of the rest of the nation in our contribution to the demise of democracy as we know it, or should know it. With due consideration to professor Olson’s revelations, had Guam’s overvoters had a crack at the 2000 presidential election, and the Guam Election Commission been in charge, Gore would probably have won in a landslide.
Apathy, fostered by dependency, is the greatest danger to our freedom, and we’re really good at it.