Alexis de Tocqueville and the thoughts for the day

[melm00se]

“I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.”

“There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.”

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy...

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

[fasttense]

1. Those last two quotes are pure BS

Our democracy is broken, corrupted and representing only the top 1%. The money of the uber rich has made almost all of our supposedly democratically elected representatives into whores of the rich. Where is single payer health care? If the destruction of democracy merely requires voters to vote themselves largess then we should have free health care, free food, water, and housing. Everyone should be sitting pretty. No one would be living in the streets. Why would these greedy, selfish voters support wars with the lives of their sons and daughters?
Where are the bribes from our Congress? In fact Congress is cutting back on support of the voting poor, the voting elderly and children in the middle of one of the worst economic depressions in history.

I think Tocqueville underestimated the corrupting influence of the financial interests and inherited wealth. He did not trust the populace, the majority of voters, to vote for what is best for a nation. He wanted an elite to rule the masses.

And we have that now. An elite few are ruining our nation.

I would definitely like to see some of this largess and bribery from Congress going to the majority of voters. Our government seems only interested in giving the already wealthy largess and bribery.

[MilesColtrane]

2. I've never seen these in any books de Tocqueville wrote.

Got some citations?