Avarice and ambition would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
Upon applying Mr. Adams lesson to modern America, it becomes clear why this country no longer works. It becomes clear why our guaranteed liberties have atrophied away to a useless remnant of what they were intended to be. We are no longer a moral or religious people. There is no base of shared values that keeps us from harming each other, instead it is the naked threat of state violence that keeps the populace from open brigandage.
We have become the Roman Empire, and like the Empire, peace can only be achieved by force. The dream of America was realized for a time, but now that aspiration to civility and freedom as symbolized by the flag and the eagle is as false as the Senate that approved Caesar's every dictate.
