FEDERALIST TEN

 We were bored waiting for a judge who was late, and took to reading Federalist Ten authored by James Madison. He was not only quite profound, but fairly prescient when he wrote 

"It is in vain to say, that enlightened statesmen will be able to adjust these clashing interests, and render them all subservient to the public good. Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm."

Perhaps the understatement of the millennium. 

Madison was examining the ability of the republic to handle various "factions" that would not always been seeking to act in the public good. In that regard he wrote another paragraph that some people, educated and not wearing MAGA hats, may find similarly prescient in describing a congress that current has the backbone of a bowl of soup and the integrity of a Hialeah property inspector at the end of the month:

Under such a regulation, it may well happen that the public voice pronounced by the representatives of the people, will be more consonant to the public good, than if pronounced by the people themselves convened for the purpose. On the other hand, the effect may be inverted. Men of factious tempers, of local prejudices, or of sinister designs, may by intrigue, by corruption, or by other means, first obtain the suffrages, and then betray the interests of the people. 

Now we do not expect the loyal members of the federalist society to get much out of this post. They simply join a club to help them become a judge, or stay one, without the slightest understanding (or desire to understand) the nature of philosophy and how concepts like epistemology affects the answer to questions like "what are rights?" and "where do rights come from?"