The Next mini Rathergate? Duffegate?

There is an article in this week's Oklahoma Gazette, 'Too much democracy?' by Clark Duffe, that has me confused. I am not sure whether to feel enlightened or to spew vitriolic hot molten magma from my pie hole. The article begins with this pragmatic quote: "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”—Sir Winston Churchill In jest, this quote is humorous, however as a truism, I believe it is not an argument against democracy, insomuch as it is a condemnation of the educational system within a democracy. In a democracy, there is the opportunity to be the best, the smartest, the cream of the crop; on the flip side there is also the freedom to be an intellectually lethargic, Kool-aid drinking, Barking Moonbat. From this point, the article takes a hard left turn ending in a fiery crash with this quote: “…democracy does not equal freedom, and freedom does not depend upon democracy. In fact, democracy is oftentimes the enemy of freedom.”—Clark Duffe Does Mr. Duffe present a valid point or is his article a clever serving of lefty mind sickness Kool-aid, designed to disseminate the worldwide epidemic that is Liberalitis? If Democracy is not the correct path for America what is the alternative that Mr. Duffe suggests? Like most liberal pessimisms, there is no suggestion or alternative, only doom, gloom, and defeatism. The article concludes by referencing the fact that Mr. Duffe was once a Libertarian candidate for Senate. On the surface this gives the article an appearance of impartiality, when in fact the under lying sentiment that—to borrow a phrase from said article—“is spilling through [the] ever-widening cracks” is the suggestion that the current administration is in a transition toward a dictatorship. To bolster his argument, Mr. Duffe handpicks an unverifiable quote from Alexander Fraser Tytler: “A democracy…can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by dictatorship” —unverifiable quote from Alexander Fraser Tytler Upon further investigation as to the origins of the Alexander Fraser Tytler’s quotation, I ran across this interesting page, which traces the origin of this quotation to a largely contrived email that, “…has been circulating on the Internet since shortly after the November 2000 presidential election.” Is it possible that yet another story has been propped up by yet another forged document? Did Mr. Duffe fail to source his quotes correctly, or is it possible that he willingly used a questionable quotation to bolster his anti-democracy hit-piece. Could this be the next mini Rathergate? To be fair, I will concede that the Oklahoma Gazette does not pride itself on being fair and balanced, but should this excuse the fact that one of their writers has used a questionable quote as the center piece for his anti-democracy commentary. The Oklahoma Gazette's Mission Statement claims to provide, "editorial content meeting high journalistic standards." I believe Mr. Duffe’s ‘Too much democracy?’ was intending to sway public opinion toward the belief that democracy cannot be successful; a view I strongly disagree with. Update (9/26 12:02AM): dustbury.com has linked to this post and has more information on where the quote might have originated.