In 1789 as George Washington reluctantly became our first President he wrote a 70 page inaugural address which was never used. In it Washington expresses his faith in the American people and their ability to judge good leaders: “until the people of America shall have lost all virtue; until they shall have become totally insensible to the difference between freedom & slavery; until they shall have been reduced to such poverty of spirit–as to be willing to sell that preeminent blessing, the birthright of Freemen, for a mess of pottage; in short, until they shall have been found incapable of governing themselves and ripe for a master those consequences, I think, can never arrive…” George was nothing if not wise. The prescience shown by the string of “untils” demonstrates his knowledge of the character of man. Now, a pessimist would argue those...