[Dansong]

I just moved from RI. I believe the reason Linc won was simple and underreported: He brings home lots of Washington money for infrastructure and he attends every ribbon-cutting ceremony around. Despite his crazy politics, people - even conservatives - vote for him because of this

[cinives]

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse (money-benefits) from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years."

The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic (1776) By Alexander Fraser Tytler, Scottish professor of history at Edinburgh.