Madison's mistake [View all]

[Recursion]

Madison, Hamilton, and Jay predicted this President. They just didn't predict this Congress.

In particular (and this was Madison's hobby-horse) they always assumed there would be an ambitious coterie of Senators ready to cast down a problematic President at the first provocation to further their own careers. In fact, Madison expressed some concern that impeachment would be overused to further individual politicians' careers.

Madison never imagined a Senate full of politicians who could take down the President and take power in his place, and would simply refuse to.

Sloth. It is to us what pride was to the Romans, wrath to the Medievals, and lust to the Puritans.

And there's something deliciously ironic about a Republic falling because of a lack of personal ambition on the part of its politicians.