Throughout medieval times, and even in the antebellum South, members of the nobility measured their wealth, in large part, by the number of slaves they possessed. With the advent of representative government, power brokers were forced to become somewhat more creative, having to make promises to the lowly masses during campaign season in the hopes of purchasing their votes on Election Day. Of course those promises need not be kept once ballots were counted. With help from a sympathetic media, a mere series of excuses would ultimately suffice to pacify the rabble. But now those commoners have really gummed up...