Excellent observations, especially this one. American politicians are sometimes EXTREMELY nasty. Both Nixon and Clinton used the IRS against their political enemies. Hillary, who had more than 900 FBI files on political enemies stolen, would not hesitate to deny medical treatment to any of them had she the power, and THAT type of danger is the BIGGEST reason to keep medicine out of the hands of those who monopolize power (governments, duh).
"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty." -- John Adams, 1772"There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust." -- Demosthenes: Philippic 2, sect. 24
"All of history attests that the centralization and concentration of power breed despotism." -- H.A.Scott Trask
"Government is not compassion ... Government is nothing more than structured, widespread coercion ..." -- Glen Allport
"What the government is good at is collecting taxes, taking away your freedoms and killing people. It's not good at much else." -- Tom Clancy on Kudlow and Cramer 9/2/03
"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."-- Thomas Jefferson
"The United States was supposed to have a limited government because the founders knew governmental power attracts swarms of crooks, demagogues and despots as surely as horse manure attracts swarms of horseflies." -- Rick Gaber
"As government grows, its increased power to grant favors or inflict pain attracts more people who would abuse the system." -- John Fund
"The coercive power of government is always a beacon to those who want to dominate others -- summoning the worst dregs of society to Washington to use that power to impose their will upon others." -- Harry Browne
"Force always attracts men of low morality." -- Albert Einstein
"Give government the weapons to fight your enemy and it will use them against you." -- Harry Browne
"Give a good man great powers and crooks grab his job." -- Rick Gaber
"Any time you give power to government, it will be abused, it will be enlarged, it will be used in ways you never intended." – Harry Browne on The Drudge Report 7-31-99
"Political power is everywhere the most serious threat to liberty. The more power politicians have, and the more able they are to disregard constitutional rules, the more serious the threat. Precedents for expanding government power are sure to be exploited by politicians more dangerous than those who set the precedents." -- Jim Powell
"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." -- Prof. John E. E. D. Acton
"Power draws the corrupted; absolute power would draw the absolutely corrupted." -- Colin Barth
"Power kills; absolute power kills absolutely." -- Prof. R. J. Rummel
"The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse." -- Edmund Burke
"Grant no power to government you would not want your worst enemies to wield against you." -- "Smokin'" Joe Freeper
-- all culled from THIS PAGE
"American politicians are sometimes EXTREMELY nasty."
I think one of the reasons French politics are simply not as nasty as American is that the politicians hold a multiplicity of offices and posts, and all have some sort of permanent posting in the cadres of the national civil service. So, regardless of who is in power, the others are all also in some sort of power.
The bickering is, therefore, petty, but it does not reach the sort of murderous proportions that it seems to in the United States.