Yesterday was election day. There were not any elections for national offices, but there were a number of contested mayoral, gubernatorial and congressional races.

I’d like to share a quotation in the spirit of elections:

I am unable to conceive that the people of America [...] will [choose], and every second year repeat the choice of [...] men, who would be disposed to form and pursue a scheme of tyranny or treachery. [...] I am equally unable to conceive that there are at this time, or can be in any short time, in the United States any [...] men capable of recommending themselves to the choice of the people at large, who would either desire or dare within the short space of two years, to betray the solemn trust committed to them.

Republican government presupposes the existence of [virtue] in a higher degree than any other form. Were the pictures which have been drawn by the political jealousy of some among us, faithful likenesses of the human character, the inference would be that there is not sufficient virtue among men for self government; and that nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.

James Madison, Federalist Paper #55