RE: "The Founders' prescription was for people to elect people of virtue."
No, not by half. The founder's prescription was a structural system of checks and balances... power balanced between Administrative, Legislative, and Judicial functions. Their desire, their hope, may have been for men of virtue to govern (that is: people of virtue who were also landowners, white, and not female), after all, hope springs eternal... but their plan to secure Democracy for the future did not depend on any innate goodness at the heart of man, but rather depended upon governmental power being balanced... and thus constrained.
Thus, any 'evil' that men would seek to do would be opposed.
Anyway, how would you determine 'people of virtue'? Can you look into their souls and give a foolproof reading? Is the cover of the book always the same as the contents?
Some of history's greatest humbugs have worn the outward cloak of virtue and piety. |
