Timeless political commentary

Insincerity. Gratuitous appeals to emotion. Tired clichés. Focus-groupped pablum. Wanton demagoguery.

Refuse to allow your mind to be filled with this trash! Instead, enrich your mind with reasoned, intellectual analysis:

What is the attitude of the democrat when political rights are under discussion? How does he regard the people when a legislator is to be chosen? Ah, then it is claimed that the people have an instinctive wisdom; they are gifted with the finest perception; their will is always right; the general will cannot err; voting cannot be too universal . . .

But when the legislator is finally elected — ah! then indeed does the tone of his speech undergo a radical change. The people are returned to passiveness, inertness, and unconsciousness; the legislator enters into omnipotence. Now it is for him to initiate, to direct, to propel, and to organize. Mankind has only to submit; the hour of despotism has struck.

The passage above comes from The Law by Frédéric Bastiat, available as a two-part audio book from FreeAudio.org.