“Individuals have conquered themselves; nations and large bodies never.”—John Adams“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.”—Plato

“Individuals have conquered themselves; nations and large bodies never.”—John Adams

“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.”—Plato

And very, very few individuals can do the above. It’s a major reason why our Founders did not believe in democracy. Adams again: “We may appeal to every page of history...for proofs irrefragable, that the people, when they have been unchecked, have been as unjust, tyrannical, brutal, barbarous, and cruel as any king or senate possessed by an uncontrollable power. The majority has eternally, and without any one exception, usurped over the rights of the minority.” And again: “The proposition that the people are the best keepers of their own liberties is not true. They are the worst conceivable, they are not keepers at all: they can neither judge, act, think, or will as a political body. Individuals have conquered themselves; nations and large bodies never.” As always, our Founding Fathers are spot on about history and the nature of man.

It’s always been this way, folks. And it’s not just democracy. Notice that Mr. Adams also referred to any “king” or “senate” possessed of too much power. Monarchy, aristocracy, democracy—no form of government is perfect or immune to tyranny and degradation. It’s simply been that, in the past 100 years, since America has progressively democratized by greatly expanding the electorate to women,........

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