"A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine."
"All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression."
"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country."
"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. ...If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake. "
Thomas Jefferson helped define the liberal ideal. A nation free from religious intolerance and oppression, free from corporate plutocracy, free from war-mongers' terror, where the advantaged care for the less-advantaged, for the good of all.
We can win this. If we don't, the worst parts of history will repeat themselves.
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