Unfiltered Quote of the Day
"In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. "
- Benjamin Franklin, in a speech he gave at the close of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, on where he thought American democracy was ultimately headed if we adopted the Constitution of the United States of America that had just been approved. That very document, along with it's 27 revisions or, as we say, Amendments, is still in use to this day.
Gore Vidal, in this interview with L.A. Weekly to promote his new book, Inventing A Nation: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, looks around at the current Bush administration and, speaking for Franklin, says "I told you so!"