From the first page, one realizes that this is no ordinary discussion of democracy. Perhaps not since Tom Paine’s "Common Sense" (1776) shook the very foundations of British rule in Colonial America has a book so poignantly challenged the rhetoric of the status quo. Abair makes the case for libertarianism with the clarity of an eagle’s vision and the precision of a diamond cutter’s strokes. He argues compellingly that the only true democracy is a libertarian democracy, a democracy committed to the absolutely equal treatment of everyone’s absolutely equal rights. Never has the case for individual rights — and democracy constitutionally limited to the defense of those rights — been argued like this! Abair argues that the most fundamental principle of representative democracy — as articulated in the Declaration of Independence — is that government derives its just powers from the consent of the people governed. The practical meaning of this most fundamental principle is inescapable: If the people do not have the just power to do something, they cannot give that just power to their government — not by consenting or voting to give government an unjust power, and not in any other way. In other words, government cannot be representative if it is acting unjustly. Abair goes on to argue that this is the most basic founding principle of American democracy, and that it has profound practical implications that most contemporary Americans have not yet fully grasped. But once Americans see the full meaning of their belief in democracy, then they will realize that the United States is at a crossroads, a crossroads similar to the public debate over slavery before the Civil War. America must either abandon many of its current domestic and foreign policies — or it must abandon its claim to be democratic. No other choice is consistent with the Declaration of Independence. No other choice is consistent with representative democracy. If the United States government cannot be genuinely just in the practical world of real politics, then the United States government cannot be genuinely representative — and its rhetoric of democracy is hypocritical. This is democracy’s dilemma. Used Book in Good Condition