Sowell has a brilliant (as usual) article on the wisdom of Edmund Burke for President Obama, or more for us in light of the President. I am actually bored with the constant negativism related to Obama's presidency (not because I don't believe most of it is justified, but because it has become so overwhelming I feel it is such a train wreck there is nothing I can do and just hope it all goes away). But this is an insightful connection and lesson for those in politics, so I am posting it for that value.
Edmund Burke understood that, no matter what form of government you have, in the end the character of those who wield the powers of government is crucial. He said: “Constitute government how you please, infinitely the greater part of it must depend upon the exercise of the powers which are left at large to the prudence and uprightness of ministers of state.”
He also said, “of all things, we ought to be the most concerned who and what sort of men they are that hold the trust of everything that is dear to us.” He feared particularly the kind of man “whose whole importance has begun with his office, and is sure to end with it” — the kind of man “who before he comes into power has no friends, or who coming into power is obliged to desert his friends.” Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and others come to mind.