Good Morning, Your Highness
You know, it's pretty damned ironic that in our (USA) society, the job of politician has transformed from a distasteful duty, undertaken only with great reflection and no small effort to bolster ones public image prior to engaging in such filth, into a career path. Reading the writings of the Founding Fathers, it appears they expected that men of means would serve as elected representatives for short periods of time, from a sense of duty, rather than any ambition to hold office. They expected that only men of means would have the financial wherewithall to be able to financially absorb time in public service without personal financial ruin. They found the job to be distasteful, and could not imagine a society in which the vocation of "politician" was held in any higher esteem than that of "street sweeper". Frankly, it seems quite plausible that, were we able to convince them of it, they should choose to stay with King George and the Empire rather than suffer the unutterable foolishness we now endure. One more good argument for a time machine, I suppose.

Whenever a man cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct. — Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826

Politicians never accuse you of "greed" for wanting other people's money, only for wanting to keep your own money. — Joseph Sobran

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. — H. L. Mencken

If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen. — Samuel Adams

We can afford to differ on the currency, the tariff, and foreign policy; but we cannot afford to differ on the question of honesty if we expect our republic permanently to endure … Honesty is not so much a credit as an absolute prerequisite to efficient service to the public. Unless a man is honest, we have no right to keep him in public life; it matters not how brilliant his capacity … The weakling and the coward cannot be saved by honesty alone; but without honesty, the brave and able man is merely a civic wild beast who should be hunted down by every lover of righteousness. … No man who is corrupt, no man who condones corruption in others, can possibly do his duty by the community. … "Liar" is just as ugly a word as "thief", because it implies the presence of just as ugly a sin in one case as in the other. If a man lies under oath or procures the lie of another under oath, if he perjures himself or suborns perjury, he is guilty under the statute law. … Under the higher law, under the great law of morality and righteousness, he is precisely as guilty if, instead of lying in a court, he lies in a newspaper or on the stump; and in all probability, the evil effects of his conduct are infinitely more widespread and more pernicious. — Teddy Roosevelt (on May 12, 1900, while he was still governor of New York)

A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage. — Alexander Tyler, writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic in his 1770 book, Cycle of Democracy

Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

A deep respect for Law requires intense skepticism toward every law. — Unknown

Why do I have to get the kind of government they deserve? — Anonymous Internet post

The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. — Tacitus

Cthulhu for President! Why vote for a lesser Evil? — Anonymous Internet post