Speaking before Britain’s House of Commons in November 1947, Sir Winston Churchill said, “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government.”

The U.S. Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. Is humanity moving toward democracy or dictatorship, toward freedom or toward tyranny?

Those who today prosper under democratic government can be thankful, but is democracy the real answer?

In a letter dated April 15, 1814, John Adams, the second president of the United States, reminded Virginia legislator John Taylor, “Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.”

Is our world moving toward a future of greater democracy, or are we witnessing the beginning of democracy’s demise?

What about the Arab world? As groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood rise to dominance and continue their struggles throughout the Middle East, are we witnessing the rise of democracy or the ushering in of a new dictatorship?

Consider Egypt. Is the conflict between the Muslim Brotherhood and the entrenched military leadership moving toward “Western style” open democracy, or toward an Islamic caliphate?

Plato, the ancient Greek philosopher, famously warned, “Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.”

Robert Roy, Lewiston