“The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please; we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations.”
— Edmund Burke
Burke
I found that quote today at the top of a Washington Post column headlined, “Trump is the demagogue that our Founding Fathers feared.”
You should go read that if you need reminding of why our republic was set up the way it was — for that matter, why our Founders chose a republic, as opposed to (shudder) pure democracy.
As for Burke — one of these days I need to read more about him. I don’t know as much as I should about the politics in Britain at the time of our Revolution. For instance, I have trouble understanding how he could have been the father of modern conservatism when he wasn’t even a Tory.
I read that he was for American independence and Catholic Emancipation, and that he opposed the French Revolution. I’m with him on all those…
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Related quote:
“Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.”
Stuff John Adams Said, Vol. II
John Adams, my main man!