Posted 5/24/2007 05:05:00 PM by Douglas

I'm stuck on a de Tocqueville kick today. No idea why, but here's a pithy quote-a-thon:

• A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
• All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.
• No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.
• There are two things which a democratic people will always find very difficult - to begin a war and to end it.
• Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort.
• In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end.
• Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
• There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
• The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.

And of course, his genius observation. Even in the 1820s, he knew what so many democracy worshipers still don't know today:

• The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

How eerily prophetic. For example, this unapologic quote from today:

"I had to make a decision to find a revenue source for issues important to me," he said. "It won't impact business and will serve a good cause."

Way to go. Extort money from one group to pay another. The American way!

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