You can't say we weren't warned

If the ruling power in America possessed both ... the right to issue orders of all kinds but also the capability and habit of carrying out those orders; if it not only laid down general principles of government but also concerned itself with the details of applying those principles; and if it dealt not only with the country's major interests but also descended to the limit of individual interests, then liberty would soon be banished from the New World.


— Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America [1835-1840]

The prescient Tocqueville warned us 170 years ago. Isn't it high time we consider his warning once again?

Note: Thanks to The Future of Freedom Foundation for including this quote in today's FFF Email Update.