… a faultless plan was not to be expected.
James Madison in Federalist No. 37
Tag: Politics
Just in time for the fireworks
The poems in this rant aren’t in my usual voice, but they do address today’s political precipice, only from a slightly earlier historical perspective. And yes, that’s scary. Kinda like the Fourth of July fireworks that way.
For this month only, I’m offering the ebook for free at Smashwords.com during its annual July sales sweep. What do you have to lose? Remember, it’s free. I promise you’ll get a bang out of this.
Check it out at my author page at Smashwords.com.
This month only, FREE! At Smashwords
Here’s your chance to get two of my most recent ebooks free, thanks to Smashword.com’s annual summer sales sweep.
Light Seed Truth is an original examination of ways we use metaphor to think about things that aren’t things or even energy – and that leads to many no-things that are intensely passionate for you or me or the people around us.
Also free this month is Trumpet of the Coming Storm, a set of polemic poems I simply had to get off my chest.
In addition, I’m offering two other ebooks at half-price: Quaking Dover, a contrarian history of New England, and my playful Hamlet: A Village of Gargoyles poems collection.
To get you own copies, go to my Jnana Hodson author page at Smashwords.
What about mass-media exposure?
The members of the executive and judiciary departments are few in number and can be personally known to a small part only of the people.
James Madison in Federalist No. 49
The costs add up
What are the chief sources of expense in every Government? … The answer, plainly is, war and rebellions – the support of those institutions which are necessary to guard the body politic, against those two most mortal diseases of society.
Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 34
Parchment is insufficient protection
… a mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments, is not a sufficient guard against those encroachments which lead to a tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the same hands.
James Madison in Federalist No. 48
On broad representation
… all classes of citizens should have some of their own number in the representative body, in order that their feelings and interests may be better understood and attended to.
Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 35
How a constitution is breached
… the executive department had not been innocent of frequent breaches of the Constitution. … The great proportion of the instances were either immediately produced by the necessities of war or recommended by Congress or the Commander in Chief. … In most of the other instances, they conformed either to the declared or the known sentiments of the legislative department.
James Madison in Federalist No. 48
An ideal tax system
… the most productive system of finance will always be the least burthensome.
Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 35
Does this include a political party?
The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
James Madison in Federalist No. 47
