The Problem With Democracy

I'm just going to come out and say it.  Democracy is a terrible thing to fight for.  WHAT?!?!?  You read it right.  Democracy is one of the worst things anyone can ever fight for.  But wasn't democracy what America's Founders fought for?  Not at all.  Allow me to explain.

The Founders of America weren't tired of monarchy.  They were tired of tyrants like George III.  After being picked on by the ruthless king, they decided that they could rule themselves.  They sought liberty.  There is no indication that the colonists had any idea what type of government they wanted, just that it would be kept in check and out of their lives as much as possible.  There were some who wanted to name George Washington as King of the United States.  Then when one person after the Constitutional Convention asked Benjamin Franklin, "What have you wrought?", the elder statesman replied, "A republic, if you can keep it."  A republic, one type of democracy, was chosen as the best means of protecting freedom.

So what is wrong with fighting for democracy?  Isn't rule of the people the greatest means toward liberty?  Yes.  But that's the problem.  It is a wonderful means, but not an end.  Little good ever comes from a fight for democracy.  Whenever there is a fight for democracy, the goal is normally to overthrow a ruthless dictator.  Then a new leadership is democratically elected.  Unfortunately, blindly overthrowing leadership results in a power vacuum.  Nature may abhor vacuums, but tyrants love them.  Democratic elections are typically nothing more than fashion competitions, with the people deciding which wolf looks the best in their sheep's clothing.  The result is often an even worse tyrant.  How can we forget that Adolf Hitler was democratically elected?

And now we see an uprising all across the Middle East.  Dictators are falling like dominoes.  And good riddance to them!  But what are they falling in the name of?  Democracy.  This rarely turns out good.  Now consider that the nations with fallen tyrants are of a similar belief system.  Could there be new dictators under one banner, or worse, eventually a unified dictator?  Of all the things that come with greater power, greater benevolence is rarely one of them.  Such is often the result of democracy.

So now we need to make a decision.  Do we continue to support democracy under the false pretense that there might actually be an occasional positive outcome?  Or do we do the right thing and ignore the type of government, so long as the people receive liberty?  That is, of course, we don't lose our own liberty first.