The column, “United States is a Republic, not a Democracy,” (BG News, Jan. 22, 2013) while misinterpreting much of American history, does your readers a disservice by spreading a popular right-wing falsehood.
In the course of his ramblings Mr. Schurrer presents what the columnist claims is a quotation from Alexander Fraser Tytler, an eighteenth century Scottish philosopher, in which he prophetically claims that democracies fail because their selfish citizens will inevitably vote themselves “largesse from the public treasury.”
Besides sounding suspiciously like Romney-defenders’ claims that Obama won re-election because of the “gifts” he gave away in his first term, this supposed quote is actually an invention of a late nineteenth century political hack, John B. Glubb.
It has since been rediscovered and popularized by the so-called “tea party” and its followers.
I would hope The BG News would do better in fact-checking its columnists in the future.
For reference, please see, among many sources, the conclusion of the librarians at the University of Edinburgh, who have received many enquiries about this quote over the years.
http://www.lib.ed.ac.uk/faqs/parqsqtt.shtml#Aftytler2
Timothy Messer-Kruse, Professor
