To the editor:

Aristotle observed in “The Politics”: “If the majority distributes among itself the things of a minority, it is evident that it will destroy the city.”

The American founders knew that previous “democracies” had been incompatible with personal security or property rights.

“The first object of government,” wrote James Madison in The Federalist No. 10, is “the protection of the different and unequal faculties of acquiring property.”

Article 1, Section 1 of the Washington State Constitution states: “All political power is inherent in the people, and governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are established to protect and maintain individual rights.”

There is a Dark Force abroad in the land, but it is not what Mr. Jim Hyde seems to think.

Rather, the doctrine of collectivism, now in its death-throes, has consistently led to the outcomes of totalitarian rule, or unsustainable welfare states.

The Founders recognized, and some of us have forgotten, that limited and defined powers of government are required to preserve liberty.

JON BERG

Freeland