No Kings Part 5

American Presidents—Who Played King, Who Served Liberty?

The lament that “the king will take, and you will become his servants,” warned the ancient Israelites of a universal temptation: the drift from government by the people to government for, by, and of a ruling class. In American history, this temptation has not been absent; it has simply worn the clothes of law and progress rather than of crowns and scepters. The Founders, acutely aware of history, built a system to stave off monarchy—checks, balances, divided powers, and regular elections. Yet, human nature persists, and so does the hunger for control—sometimes for noble reasons, but often accelerating, step by step, toward centralization and dependency.