Angry mobs of demonstrators who demand that government give them what they want often hold signs reading, “This is what democracy looks like.” They’re right — and wrong

by Fr. James Thornton

(Book Review)-Mobocracy: The Cultural & Political War to Destroy Our Republic Under God, by Jake Jacobs, Ph.D., Abbotsford, Wis.: Life Sentence Publishing, 2012, 296 pages, hardcover.

In the earliest days of our country’s existence as an independent nation, our Founding Fathers endeavored to establish a constitutional republic and to eschew the pitfalls of democracy, a form of government they detested and feared. For example, John Adams wrote, “Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.” Thomas Jefferson said that “democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where 51% of the people may take away the rights of the other 49%.” And, Benjamin Franklin spoke of democracy as “two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.” [Read more...]