The above quotation comes from the wise hand of James Madison, one of our most esteemed Founding Fathers, and the 4th President of the United States. The people of this nation should be forever grateful that those that were the principle agents in the revolution and thereby the formation of this nation, were exceedingly astute and prescient people, because what we have today, is oftentimes a pathetic shell of the great men that founded this nation, and is the proximate reason why this country is heading in the wrong direction.
When it comes to power, it is imperative that the people recognize and acknowledge that as good as a given person might be, when power is thereby thrusted or trusted upon them, there is a strong tendency for those in power, to not only get corrupted by that power, but also to end up serving mainly those that help to augment and to keep that person in power, which signifies that whenever such power is being misused, the more that the people will be cheated and suffer accordingly.
The very first thing that the citizens of this nation need to do, is to hold accountable those that are in power, and to the degree that it is so possible, do what can be done to let them to know that they are being watched and monitored, for if that is not done, then the temptation to use power in ways that are detrimental to the people is only going to increase all the more. The people, therefore, must be those that stand upon a watchtower, ever watching to make sure that the power so granted to their representative government is used in a way that is fairly beneficial and prudent to those that are the governed, because when it is not, it is the people that are left holding the short end of the stick.
As much as we might want to believe that having control of billions upon billions of dollars for budgets, and being able to make decisions in regards to a multitude of important things that effect millions upon millions of people, that those that have been elected or appointed will always do the right or most appropriate thing, because that is what they are supposed to do, is belied by the fact, that a significant portion of the time, a large segment of those in power, have essentially had their good minds, addled by that power, and therefore make fundamentally flawed decisions.
Look, it has to be said, trust is something that is earned, it should not just be assumed, so that it behooves the people of this nation, to be far less trusting, and to be far more diligent in monitoring those that are in power, because power in the hands of those that are not the strongest of mind or will, is something that will potentially wreak havoc upon their ethics, which thereby leads to those that lack such power, suffering the ill effects of being lied to, manipulated, and controlled by those that perhaps meant well, but have devolved into pushing for their own selfish objectives or much, much worse.