Those who seek education in the paths of duty are always deceived by the illusion that power in the hands of friends is an advantage to them. As far as Adams could teach experience, he was bound to warn them that he had found it an invariable disaster. Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents had been always tragic, chiefly as an almost insane excitement at first, and a worse reaction afterwards.
Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams (1907).
On November 15, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the Articles of Confederation — after 16 months of deliberation.
No man chooses evil because it is evil; he only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks.
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790).
English is an outrageous tangle of those derivations and other multifarious linguistic influences, from Yiddish to Shoshone, which has grown up around a gnarly core of chewy, clangorous yawps derived from ancestors who painted themselves blue to frighten their enemies.
Roy Blount, Jr., Alphabet Juice (2008), p. 93.
On November 14, 1918, Czechoslovakia became a republic.
Born on the same date 29 years later, American writer P. J. O’Rourke.
There is a heartfelt and near-universal refusal to understand the basic economic principles behind the creation of wealth.
P. J. O’Rourke, Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics (1998), p. 235.
“You start out not wanting to poison the outcome, and you end by poisoning your soul.” But there is a way out.
Click on over to Townhall.com, for one of the more interesting stories-behind-the-story of last week’s election upset. And then come back here, for more information and perspective:
I don’t fear Donald Trump, and I don’t fear the policies he is talking about. What I fear is the extremist interpretation of Islam that is spilling blood on the streets of our world, from Orlando to Dhaka to Brussels.
Asra Nomani, CNN, November 11, 2016.
O, the Trump win was a thing to behold! Maybe you are like us here at Common Sense, and did not vote for the man. But you did not vote for Hillary Clinton, either.
So, are you to blame? Er, thank?
There were plenty of Jill Stein voters. And many more Gary Johnson voters — over four million, the largest return of any Libertarian Party candidate in the challenger party’s history.
At least one writer on the ostensible Left has argued that, had ALL of Stein voters “done their duty” and voted for Mrs. Clinton, and HALF of the Libertarian’s vote wised up and voted for the Anti-Trump possibility, Mrs. Clinton would have won. So, these folks blame minor party voters for a Clinton Loss . . . and its allegedly horrible flip side record, the surprising Trump Win.
Well, what do the Libertarians think of it?
As you can see: Not much. That is what. Here is Nicholas Sarwark, Libertarian Party chairperson, doubling down on what Gary Johnson said:
And they are right. How, exactly? Well, it is not just that Hillary/Tim voters took votes away from the Libertarians’ Gary/Bill ticket. It is also the case that, well, the responsible parties for Hillary Clinton losing are . . . Democratic Party voters!
Read the graph and weep, folks:
SO, WHY THE PRECIPITOUS DROP?
Could it be that Hillary Clinton was an awful candidate . . . even by leftist standards? And that is why so many Democrats could not even be bothered to go to the polls and vote for “their” sorry candidate?
The obvious answer is: Yes.
On November 12, 1905, Norwegians established, by referendum, a monarchy — not a republic. Exactly 14 years later, to the day, Austria became a republic.