Tocqueville's Warning to America: The Dangers of Despotism

First off, who was Alexis de Tocqueville, and how do this Frenchman's words relate to America, of which he was writing?
"His most famous work, Democracy in America (1835), continues to be regarded as the premier commentary on American government and society written by a foreigner."

Tocqueville's insights into what made the United States successful have proved informative to the general public and to scholars alike. His observations represented the excitement of sociological discovery, made by, and for (for he wrote for his French compatriots) the eyes of those for whom this style of democracy was entirely novel. ....

Big Government

"As Americans gather to celebrate the anniversary of our nation's freedom, we contemplate, on the one hand, the revolution in Egypt, where people crying out for freedom could only appeal to the military, having lost any power of self-government; and, on the other, the slow imposition of Obamacare in the United States, delayed only so that it might never be defeated, creeping gradually into every aspect of life, administered by agencies already shown to be hostile to freedom. We have much for which to be grateful--and much about which to be warned."
Quoting Tocqueville's conclusion:

A constitution which should be republican in its head, and ultra-monarchical in all its other parts, has ever appeared to me to be a short-lived monster. The vices of rulers and the inaptitude of the people would speedily bring about its ruin; and the nation, weary of its representatives and of itself, would create freer institutions, or soon return to stretch itself at the feet of a single master.

 

ralphandchuck.

Hat tip to Christy Waters at Conservative Bloggers on Facebook