On June 21, 2012 there has been added to the website, Capitalism: The Liberal Revolution, a new chapter entitled “Political Democracy in America.” The link to this new chapter is https://www.capitalismtheliberalrevolution.com/chapter/political-democracy-in-america/
This is by far the longest chapter on the website https://www.capitalismtheliberalrevolution.com/
A short summary of the entire chapter appears in the Synopsis at the beginning of the chapter. At the end of the chapter is commentary on how and why the chapter expands on the material in Course V-50.
This chapter traces the evolution of political democracy in America down to the present from 1776 and through the early days of the republic when the inhabitants of America looked to their own efforts, and cooperation with their fellows, to provide for their material needs. Two centuries of operation under the U.S. Constitution have bred an American public that includes many, perhaps the majority, who look to the state to provide for a substantial portion, if not all of their material needs.
Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson spoke for almost all the founders of the United States of America in warning against entangling foreign alliances and urging their countrymen to stay out of wars by avoiding intervention in the affairs of other nations. However, over time the political elite of America did just the opposite. They urged or dragged the country into numerous wars, two of them totally aggressive and unjustifiable, and in the past century cast the country into the role of policeman for the world, causing wars of intervention in the affairs of other countries—wars that the American people cannot afford and generally come to dislike.
For those who would like to print out the chapter to read away from a computer, it is suggested that rather than printing the chapter from the website, it may be preferable to copy the chapter into a separate Word document, and then print the Word document. More than one reader has found that in printing directly from the website, the right hand margin cuts off a few characters at the end of most lines, leaving the reader to guess what the truncated words are.
It is hoped that readers will find it profitable to read this chapter as the author has found an abundance of material new to him that helps to expound, corroborate and substantiate the ideas expressed in the V-50 lectures not only of Andrew Galambos but those of Jay Snelson. Mr. Snelson’s presentation of 1977-1978 benefited by a significant amount of material added by Mr. Snelson, not to alter the message but to corroborate Galambos’ teaching.