A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from April 20, 2014
Dumbocracy (dumb + democracy)

“Dumbocracy” (dumb + democracy) has been cited in print since at least 1869. The saying usually means a democracy of “dumb” (uninformed or disinterested) voters, but it could also mean a “dumb democracy”—one that doesn’t function very well.
     
 
Chronicling America
30 September 1869, The Vinton Record (McArthur, Vinton County, OH), pg. 2, col. 3:
The dumbocracy and aristocracy all support Pendleton and poverty. Hurray for Hays!
 
12 October 1892, Logansport (IN) Daily Journal, pg. 4, col. 2:
THE evening organ of dumbocracy, for that is the portion of its party it represents, from time to time quotes the wise sayings of distinguished men who call attention to the danger of plutocracy, monopoly and measles.
 
Chronicling America
8 March 1919, Washington (DC) Times, “Two and Three” with “Bugs” Baer, sports page, pg. 13, col. 3:
Now that the Kaiser is back in his cage again and the works are safe for dumbocracy, the world has settled back to feeding the canary and wondering if mixing up the contents of three two per cent bottles will give you a six per cent concoction.
 
16 February 1929, Winston-Salem (NC) Journal, pg. 6, col. 3:
Having been in the Army himself in an effort to make the world safe from Dumbocracy, the cop saluted, pulled out a medal and decorated the citizen with the croix de street.
   
30 April 1939, Sunday World-Herald (Omaha,NE), “Upon My Word!” by Morton Moss, pg. 2-C, col. 8:
Is this country going to war to make the world safe for dumbocracy again?
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Dumbocracy in America : studies in the theatre of guilt, 1987-1994
Author: Robert Sanford Brustein
Publisher: Chicago : Dee, 1994.
Edition/Format:   Book : English
 
OCLC WorldCat record
Dumbocracy : adventures with the loony left, the rabid right, and other American idiots
Author: Marty Beckerman
Publisher: New York : Disinformation : Distributed in the USA and Canada by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, ©2008.
Edition/Format:   Book : English
 
Urban Dictionary
Dumbocracy
Dumbocracy: noun: a democracy with stupid voters.
“Only in a true dumbocracy could (insert name here) have been re-elected.”
by Stupid117 January 13, 2009
 
Stromatais
Friday, 7 January 2011
Dumbocracy
There is no more sure means of destroying a civilization, a society, a religion or any other institution than by employing democracy. A lot of people go on and on about how great democracy is. They mention freedom and democracy together, as though freedom is gotten or ensured by democracy. But it has always been known that democracy is nothing more than the tyranny of the many over the few, the ignorant over the enlightened, the base over the excellent, the mean-spirited over the noble-spirited.
   
GlobalResearch
Dumbocracy’s Demise: How “Fake Democracy” Destroys “Real Democracy”
By John Kozy
April 10, 2014
The conventional wisdom is that democracy is the best form of government. As the imperialist demagogue Winston Churchill, put it, “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others that have been tried.” But such conventional wisdom comes by default. No one has ever offered any evidence in support of it. In fact, no one even knows what such evidence could be. No established criteria exist for the comparative adjectives worst, worse, bad, good, better, and best when they are applied to governments.
 
OpEdNews
Op Eds 4/19/2014 at 13:23:06
The Rise of Our Dumbocracy (A Review of Paul Craig Roberts’ “How America Was Lost”)
By Gary Corseri

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityGovernment/Law/Military/Religion /Health • Sunday, April 20, 2014 • Permalink


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