"Tyranny and oppression are just as possible under democratic forms as under any other"

[canoeist52]

“We have long rested comfortably in this country upon the assumption that because our form of government was democratic, it was therefore automatically producing democratic results. Now, there is nothing mysteriously potent about the forms and names of democratic institutions that should make them self-operative. Tyranny and oppression are just as possible under democratic forms as under any other. We are slow to realize that democracy is a life; and involves continual struggle. It is only as those of every generation who love democracy resist with all their might the encroachments of its enemies that the ideals of representative government can even be nearly approximated.”

-Robert M. La Follette Governor of Wisconsin 1900-1906

http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/bios/21.html

Defeated in the 1890 election, he returned to his Madison law practice but remained active in state politics. He served as governor from 1900 to 1906, where he pushed a broad reform agenda which became known as "the Wisconsin idea." To weaken the political influence of party machines and corporations, he instituted direct primary elections and campaign spending limits. He also created state commissions to guide policy on railroad regulation, the environment, transportation, civil service and taxation, drawing heavily on university experts in various fields. In 1906, he returned to Washington, where he served three terms in the Senate. In 1909, he founded La Follette's Weekly Magazine (later called The Progressive, still published monthly in Madison) to promote further his ideas. In 1924, he ran for president on the Progressive Party ticket, earning approximately one-sixth of the popular vote.
SOURCES: Webster's American Biographies; Encyclopedia of American Biography.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

1. recommend

[Arctic Dave]

2. Watch out, you might be accused of spamming.

I would say that is a major problem with the thinking of people today. USA, USA, USA has become an empty slogan. Little by liitle we are becoming what we accuse other countries of doing. Oppression, corruption and alienation from political power is becoming entrenched.

[Uncle Joe]

3. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, canoeist.