John Adams Decribes Pelosi: The Cankerworm of Faction

Nobody Remembers

Here’s a perfect description of the two-party system, described by John Adams in 1787.

When I read this, all I could see was Nancy Pelosi’s face, and Bernie Sanders promising the moon.

Our founders knew the nature of man, and that nature has never changed. Ever. And WILL never, change.

So, be amazed, as I was,  at the succinct and razor-sharp mind of John Adams….and why power needs to be curtailed, and the corrupt will always be with us. From his Defense of the Constitution:

When these elections are in a single city, like Rome, there will be always two sets of candidates. If one set succeeds one year, the other will endeavor to succeed the next. This will make the whole year a scene of faction and intrigue, and every citizen, except, perhaps, a very few, who will not meddle on either side, a partisan or factious man. If the elections are in a large country, like England, for example, or one of the United States of America, where various cities, towns, boroughs, and corporations, are to be represented, each scene of election will have two or more candidates, and two or more parties, each of which will study its sleights and projects, disguise its designs, draw in tools, and worm out enemies. We must remember, that every party, and every individual, is now struggling for a share in the executive and judicial power as well as legislative, for a share in the distribution of all honors, officers, rewards, and profits. Every flattery and menace, every passion and prejudice of every voter will be applied to: every trick and bribe that can be bestowed, and will be accepted, will be used: and, what is horrible to think of, that candidate, or that agent, who has fewest scruples: who will propagate lies and slanders with most confidence and secrecy: who will wheedle, flatter, and cajole: who will debauch the people by treats, feasts, and diversions, with the least hesitation: and bribe with the most impudent front, which can consists with hypocritical concealment, will draw in tools and worm out enemies the fastest. Unsullied honor, sterling integrity, real virtue, will stand a very unequal chance. When vice, folly, impudence, and knavery have carried an election one year, they will acquire, in the course of it, fresh influence and power to succeed the nest. In the course of the year, the delegate in an assembly that disposes of all commissions, contracts and pensions, has many opportunities to reward his friends among his own constituents, and to punish his enemies. The son or other relation of one friend has a commons given him in the army, another in the navy, a third a benefice in the church, a fourth in the customs, a fifth in the excise: shares in loans and contracts are distributed among his friends, by which they are enabled to increase their own and his dependents and partisan, or, in other words, to draw in more instrument and parties, and worm out their opponents. All this is so easy to comprehend, so obvious to sight, and so certainly known in universal experience, that it is astonishing that our author should have ventured to assert, that such a government kills the cankerworm Faction.

His answer was….term limits!

Knowing that our wise founder was right, Nobody says with certainty that the Cankerworm of Nancy Pelosi has been in office WAY too long.

May 23, 2019 Posted by Joyanna Adams | American History | American History, corruption, democrats, John Adams | Leave a comment