OGBDeacon07
Well-known member
Former Supreme Court Justice on the Danger of "Pervasive Civic Ignorance" in the US
Good video and commentary by Justice David Souter. (PBS News Hour, Sep 17, 2012)
Good video and commentary by Justice David Souter. (PBS News Hour, Sep 17, 2012)
I don’t worry about our losing a republican government in the United States because I’m afraid of a foreign invasion. I don’t worry about it because of a coup by the military, as has happened in some other places. What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed people will not know who is responsible, and when the problems get bad enough — as they might do for example with another serious terrorist attack, as they might do with another financial meltdown — some one person will come forward and say: ‘Give me total power and I will solve this problem.’
That is how the Roman republic fel. Augustus became emperor not because he arrested the Roman senate. He became emperor because he promised that he would solve problems that were not being solved.