“The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money”
Alexis de Tocqueville (French Historian and Political scientist. 1805-1859)

I vaguely recall something similar from a famous economist (Adam Smith?) that said the natural life of a republic is 200 years, after which time public officials will have perfected their methods of looting the public treasury.

Or Pogo's more succinct: "We have met the enemy and he is us."

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2007 DL650
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" -- Harry M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927