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The good news, to relieve all this gloom, is that a democracy is inherently self-correcting. Here, the people are sovereign. Inept political leaders can be replaced. Foolish policies can be changed. Disastrous mistakes can be reversed.

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government.

Above all we should not forget that government is an evil, a usurpation upon the private judgement and individual conscience of mankind.

Without thinking or reflecting, we plunge into war, contract heavy debts, increase vastly the patronage of the Executive, and indulge in every species of extravagance, without thinking that we expose our liberty to hazard. It is a great and fatal mistake.

We make our own future; we govern ourselves, and to govern is to choose.

Self-government can succeed only through an instructed electorate.

Government on its own is always inefficient.

Our government leaders... have made many mistakes in the past when they have lost sight of the sacred American values rooted in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We are at the brink of even graver mistakes and assaults on these values.

It's really remarkable when you think about what we don't like about government, we, the people created. So if we created it, we can also fix it.