Letter: No, Athens wasn’t a role model for our republic

A man takes a picture next the ancient Parthenon temple at the Acropolis hill of Athens, on Monday, May 18, 2020. | Associated Press

Kimball Shinkoskey’s exuberant admiration for the democracy of ancient Athens (“Letter: Republicans look a lot like the tyrants of ancient Athens,” Sept. 18), and his application of the same to our own present situation, is interesting, but I fear that it overlooks a very cogent point. I believe it was the Athenians who voted away their hard-won democracy and devolved into despotism — a point not lost on our own Founding Fathers, who feared democracy as much or more than they despised monarchy.

It was that fear of democracy that led the founders to give us a republic, with dispersal of power and cautionary checks and balances, in hopes of keeping us from going the way of Athens — which we have repeatedly tried to do ever since. With the luxury of history to temper our exuberance, can we be wise enough to avoid the pitfalls of others or will we, with eyes wide open, jump into the same abyss?

Thomas W. Brown

Murray

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