“When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.”
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“All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.”
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Virginians are faced with a condrumn this coming November; we can vote for a candidate for Governor who epitomizes the first quote; or we can vote for a candidate who does not understand that governance involves involving all the people in the solutions that face a local, state, or national government and not representing just the interest of those who vote for them.
We have no real choice. That is wrong, but then democracy has never been a truly Virginia trait.