Historians like to remind us that our founding fathers didn't like democracy.

Our second president, John Adams, once said, quote,

Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself.

There was never democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

Our fourth president, James Madison, wrote, quote, democracies have ever been

spectacles of turbulence and contention, have ever been found incompatible with personal security

or the rights of property, and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been

violent in their deaths. Now, these men believed in natural rights.

They believed that God had created mankind and that, therefore, human beings were entitled

to certain inalienable rights.

But as you can tell from these quotes, they didn't think that democracies were the

best way to secure those rights.

They believed that democracies were violent, chaotic, and that they tended towards anarchy.

And most of the world seemed to agree.

At the time, the vast majority of governments were monarchies,

and most people believed that a strong central government was needed to keep the fabric of society together.

George Washington believed that chaos or anarchy, quote, gradually inclined the minds of men

to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual, unquote.

In other words, democracy tends to anarchy, but then swings back towards tyranny.

But the founders also believe that monarchies led to tyranny.

After all, this was the entire premise of the American Revolution.

So if both democracy and monarchy led to tyranny, what was the solution?

...