If you rob Peter to pay Paul you will always be able to count on Paul's vote

To The Daily Sun,

Unfortunately I cannot take credit for crafting the paragraph that follows, but I feel compelled to share it with you nonetheless. In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by dictatorship."

In the last eight years the national debt has increased by $7.4 trillion. According to justfacts.com as of September 2016 the sum now exceeds $19.4 trillion. That's a huge amount of debt! About $60,059 for every man, woman and child now living in the U.S. — or about a $250,000 per household.

So, if you've decided to "make a statement" on Nov. 8 by casting your vote for a third-party candidate who has no hope of winning the election, or if you've decided to "sit this one out" please consider this — a government that robs from Peter to pay Paul, can always depend on Paul's vote.

Dean Ingram

Laconia