[Talisker]

“It is a misfortune incident to republican government,” Madison wrote, “that those who administer it may forget their obligations to their constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust.”

This is why they came up with the tripartite division of checks and balances - they knew what was coming.

Sometimes I think that the entire American experiment is a holding action against a tide of evil, designed solely to enable survival until a certain time is reached. A delaying action, if you will, until reinforcements arrive.

[Stat-boy]

It was brilliant. They assumed politicians act in their self-interest. The greed of the state legislature (not wanting to let the federal government have all the power) meant that the US Senators would have been a check against an over-expansive federal government.

[lentulusgracchus]

A delaying action, if you will, until reinforcements arrive.

We are the reinforcements. And right now we have to slam the door on Obama's army of Mexicans.