Democracy

* Re the Roger Boesche essay on Athenian democracy (Dec. 20, Commentary):

Boesche offers the premise that our politics are anti-democratic and corrupt. Most reflective persons agree. Unfortunately, he goes on to praise Athenian direct democracy and slam our Founders by saying they didn’t copy this form because of their “fear of the poor.”

Let’s set the record straight. (1) Athenians perished as slaves because direct democracy is government by emotion and impulse. Our Founders were better historians than most moderns, so they rejected a form that defies common sense. (2) Because our modern selection and “deliberative” processes are corrupt does not logically lead to the idea that this experiment has failed--indeed it has barely begun.

What I’d like to see in Commentary is an occasional piece by Thomas Paine or Benjamin Franklin. It’d be royalty free, they had some timeless words and I’m tired of ignorant Founder-bashing.

ROGER POOL

Irvine