Sir Alexander Tytler was a Scottish advocate, judge, writer, and historian.  Lord Tytler lived from 1747 until 1813; about the time of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson in America.  Tytler was a professor at the University of Edinburgh.  One of Tytler's most influential and proverbial historical writings was about the lifespan of countries operating under democratic republican governance.  Tytler believed the life expectancy of a self-ruled nation was about 200 years.

Tytler was very dismissive about who holds the real power in a democratic republic or even a pure democracy.  He felt these types of government do not last, cannot sustain themselves, and eventually crumble because of human nature.  History repeats itself because human nature does not change.  Tytler's most famous historical and yet futuristic prediction was the "Eight Stages of a Democracy."  After studying human nature as well as past history, Tytler predicted the "Eight Stages of a Democracy."  A brief reading sure makes one nervous about America's future.    

"Eight Stages of a Democracy."

1)  Bondage to Spiritual Faith

2)  Spiritual Faith to Great Courage

3)  Great Courage to Liberty

4)  Liberty to Abundance

5)  Abundance to Selfishness

6)  Selfishness to Apathy

7)  Apathy to Dependence

8)  Dependence back to Bondage

The study of Tytler's analysis can be sobering.  A great many Americans, including 80 million Trump voters, are inclined to feel we're at stage #7 and closing in on #8 fast.  Surely you would think that even the Americans who have placed their guy in the White House must see some of the danger signs.  The Biden/Harris administration has declared war on religion.  The Biden/Harris regime is criminalizing political dissent.  There are way too many Americans who live only on government assistance and handouts.  Our borders are being overrun by illegal immigrants for whom there are no jobs. And when there is work for illegals, it certainly pushes down the wages of the poor working-class Americans already legally here.  Our nation's capital has been barricaded, bordered up, and beefed up with soldiers who are there to shoot fellow Americans.  Lincoln did not even order this during the Civil War.  And half of America does not believe the recent election results.  We now in some ways resemble Germany of  the early 1930s.   

Progressives might call this the "new normal."  Patriots would call it bondage.  The new McCarthyism from the Left has made some patriots prisoners in their own land.  Increasingly, patriots are being cancelled out of their own society.  Books are burned, authors are silenced,  and careers are destroyed.  Churches are shuttered in this new normal.  This new Supreme Court has no credibility with half of America, which now believes the Supreme Court is comprised of either cowards, the compromised, or crooks.  The late Milton Friedman famously said that America can either have a society with a welfare safety net for the less fortunate, or a borderless country without laws restricting immigration, but not both.  That is exactly what the Biden/Harris administration is trying to do right now.  It is almost as if they are trying to bring us to financial ruin and economic collapse on purpose.  One must wonder if those in power are taking direct instructions from China.  The French student of democracy Alexis de Tocqueville once said long ago of America that "America is a great country because America is good."  But once they cease to be good, they will no longer be great.  This is an ominous warning, even from the French.  When we have to take moral guidance lessons from the French, we’re in trouble.

Lord Tytler continued to say that neither democratic republics nor pure democracies last for more than 200 years for one simple reason.  Tytler explained that, "It only exists until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury."  Once the voters realize this, they only vote into office those politicians who give them free stuff without the need to work for it.  This causes economic and eventual national collapse, and a dictatorial totalitarian government replaces the democratic republic.

Tytler's words of wisdom are good for a Chamber of Commerce, an AP History class, and a Sunday School class to hear and ponder. Congress in particular should study Tytler's eight stages.  November 4th, 2020 was a disastrous day in American history.  And the days that followed January 6th, 2021, might even prove to be far worse and longer lasting.  America is now in her 245th year of existence.  One must wonder, unless we can change things around dramatically, rapidly, and extensively (and God heals our land); if we are living on borrowed time. Sir Alexander Tytler believed that we are.

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